This is going to start with a long story, because just getting to the point of having a permit in hand has been a very long story. It is now November and I started this process in May. TL;DR: I'm building a 22x26 detached garage in my backyard.
I've been dreaming of building my own detached garage workshop for many years now. My first house almost 10 years ago had a 30x40 pole barn, but I gave that up to return to my home state. Since then, it's been rental houses with typical suburban 2-car garages. Just enough to story my beloved El Camino and have not-quite enough space to build project cars. And if you've known me on this forum, I've built some real crazy project cars despite these inadequate, temporary workspaces.
Almost 2 years ago, my then-fiance and I bought a house, and I've been scheming how to add more garage space since. In fact, we bought this specific house with the idea in mind to add a detached garage. It's in a very specific part of town, close to both of our jobs but not too far from the city, non-HOA, and unincorporated. These criteria limited our options to older houses, but it's worked out great so far, and I have an amazing partner who is not only understanding, but borderline enabling, of my ridiculous hobby.
This summer I finally ordered a survey and bought some plans. The house already has an attached 2-car, and I yeah I managed to finish the GRM Free Europa and the Rice Rod in that space. But I could do much better work in a dedicated, detached shop with a lift. I plan to put a 22 ft wide x 26 ft deep shop in that patch of grass between driveway and shed. That leaves 10 ft for the side setback per county code, and enough space for a walkway between the buildings. It's under the 650 sqft limit of accessory buildings for my lot size, so no variance should be needed. It also leaves about 10-12 feet to the shed. Many friends have asked why even keep the shed? Well first of all it's already there, so why tear it down? It's enormous at about 30 x 15, and on a block foundation, and it will keep all the clutter out of both garages. Of course the shed is inside the side and rear setbacks, but it's already existing, so I shouldn't have a problem pulling a permit to build my garage right?
Wrong. The county zoning office took one glance at my original site plan and survey, and informed me that my side and rear setbacks are swapped. Since I have a corner lot, the "front" of the property is the shortest road frontage, no matter which way your house is actually facing. So even though the surveyor and I both thought I had a 10ft setback to work with on the side closest to the driveway, it's actually 35ft there. Which would be the entire proposed garage. So, I needed a variance, which I applied for in July. The next zoning variance hearing would be September. And since the shed is also inside the setbacks, they advised me to add it to the variance paperwork. Even though it's been there for who knows how many decades, and exists on my tax bill...but I guess those are the rules. So I apply for the variance. I also had to put up a stupid sign in my yard the month leading up to the zoning board hearing to publicly inform my neighbors of exactly when and where to come screw me over. Just kidding, all my neighbors are super cool, and I even got their signitures of approval on my variance paperwork. The permit office people even said I should get approved with no issues; they see this all the time.
Despite being told by the zoning and permit office folks that my variance would be the rubber-stamp "consent agenda" part of the meeting, they instead made me take the stand and ask a bunch of invasive questions about why I'm doing this. I survived the gauntlet, and my variance was approved, subject to a few conditions. The relevant one was that since the shed is within a drainage easement, I had to sign a "hold-harmless" agreement with the county in case they ever need to dig in that area and therefore demolish my shed. Okay, whatever, just let me build my shop. This agreement took almost a month to acquire. First, I had to track down a county water engineer that was even willing to listen to me. He was actually very helpful and nice, even found out that these isn't any actual infrastructure within that easement, and due to the topography and development of the area, probably never will be. He even thought it possible for the county to cede the easement back to me, but that process would take forever. So he wrote up an agreement, another notarized form, and I took it to the zoning office.
And finally, almost 4 months after starting this process, I have a permit to build my shop!!!
