This past June I made a trip to my property to meet with potential builders, and begin work on clearing trees for construction next Spring. Since then, I’ve worked with an architect to develop an efficient and thoughtful floorplan, coordinated with an engineering company to have a soil sample test and septic system designed, and had the excavator cut in a rough driveway and clear additional trees. As of today, I’ve selected the builder I intend to work with, the septic design has been completed, an initial rough driveway has been cut in, and the permits required to install the septic system have been submitted.
With respect to septic systems in the area, there are essentially two types, a standard single tank design and a two-tank high level treatment (aerobic) design. County health codes require a minimum of 200 feet from an existing or proposed well and an installed standard septic system. Where my property is located, there is an existing home across the road from mine, another on the Northern side, and one below the back property line. The homes across and next to me have existing wells near the road, and my proposed well will also be located near the road just past the utility easement boundary. Given the locations of the existing and proposed wells, and where I plan the foundation to be located, it appeared as though a standard single tank system would work. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, that didn’t turn out to be the case. When the septic engineers were on-site to survey the area for the septic system, they discovered the property behind mine has a well located about 20 feet from the back property line. This threw everything out the window. There is no way to obtain the necessary 200 feet between wells and the septic system with a standard design; this forced the need for a high level treatment system. By having a high level treatment system, it reduces the 200 foot space requirement to 100 feet, but it also increased the cost by about 25%. So essentially I’m burying the value of a new midrange luxury car in the ground in order to collect and process crap… literally. On a positive note, the results from the soil test reveled that additional filtration sand and gravel wouldn’t be needed for the leach field because the existing soil water retention is very low.
When I received the final septic design, I contacted the excavator and he submitted for the necessary permits and ordered the additional high level treatment tank. In mid-September, the excavator contacted me stating the high level treatment tank had arrived and that he would be installing the system the first week of October once the permits were approved. I made plans to be in the area that week for the installation and to work on processing some of the trees that had been cleared and placed in a pile. When I arrived, the excavator informed me that the permit for the rough driveway had been denied by the county; and since the rough driveway permit was denied, the permit for the septic system couldn’t be issued because county code requires at least a permit approved rough driveway be established before a septic system can be installed. The reason given for the denial of the rough driveway was due to the proximity of the driveway of the property across from mine. The county said there needed to be a 50 foot minimum offset between driveways, but they didn’t explain the reasoning for that much of an offset. Upon finding this out, I searched the county codes regarding driveway requirements and I couldn’t find anything mentioning driveway offsets… there was plenty of information detailing minimum lengths, widths, and angles… but absolutely nothing about offsets. The county inspector who denied the driveway permit stated he wanted the driveway located on the opposite end of the property (Northern end). Having to do so would result in a significant change to the design plans as it would require the garage layout to be completely altered. This would also make snow removal in the winter months more difficult since the winds primarily blow from the North and wind-blown snow would build up against the garage door… and would be in the shade almost the entire time. By having the garage originally face South, snow wouldn’t build up against the door and the sun would help melt any snow accumulation.
I reached out to the architect to let him know and he said he would contact the inspection office since he use to be on the code review board several years ago. When I heard back from the architect, I could tell he was irritated. He said the “preferred” offset had always been 35 feet and he didn’t know where the 50 foot requirement was coming from. He also said if you ask three different inspectors, you’ll get three different answers. The architect said one of the reasons given for the offset is to minimize potential erosion concerns from water running down a driveway across and uphill from another driveway. Ok, that I could understand, but my proposed driveway is not directly across from another driveway, there is maybe a 15 foot offset… just not the 50 foot alleged requirement. Another reason the architect was given for the requested offset… are you ready for this one?… is to prevent vehicle headlights from shining into a house on the opposite side at night. You’ve got to be kidding me. This debacle brought everything to a screeching halt until the driveway permit gets approved. The architect said he knew the manager of county planning and that he would ask to meet with him at the property to show and explain the reasoning for the current driveway location. So in the meantime, the only thing I could do was work on processing as many of the downed trees as possible.
As I was bucking the downed trees into firewood sized logs, I would periodically take breaks, and I was occasionally visited by some of the native locals. Mostly I would be visited by deer and red foxes, but once, in the distance I caught a glimpse of a moose. On one occasion, a doe meandered up and didn’t seemed to be bothered at all by the fact that I was there. She came within about 20 feet of me and just continued to watch me, without a care in the world. As I continued to process the trees, it seemed as though the pile wasn’t getting any smaller. I was surprised at how large it was… I’m guessing about 12 feet high and 6 feet deep. I still have a long way to go, but once all of the trees have been processed into firewood, I should have close to 10 – 12 cords of wood. The excavator mentioned having a log processor that can cut logs into predefined lengths so I might consider working with him to process them.
While I was in the area, I also met with the builder and we walked the property and placed several stakes to mark the tentative foundation location. Of course the location/orientation will change slightly once an approved driveway is established.
My time at the property was coming to an end and there was still no word regarding the approval of the permit, and winter is knocking on the door. The goal was to get the septic system in before winter so it would be one less thing to address next season. Last week the architect called to say that he had finally met with the manager of county planning, and within 5 minutes, the manager said the driveway location and rationale made sense and that he would approve the permit… provided a couple of conditions were met. First, the address post would need to be relocated… no problem with that. The second, he wanted the edge of the driveway opening to start about one foot from the edge of the property line and go straight in approximately 35 feet, and then turn towards the proposed garage location. Definitely doable, it will just require some additional tree clearing (more money), but it will allow for the garage to remain facing South as originally planned. With this good news, I informed the excavator and it looks as though the septic system will be installed by the end of the month or first week of November; I just won’t be able to be there when it is.
This was just one minor bump in the road of many more I’m sure will come during this process. Such it is in life, things don’t always go as you hope; and a lot of times it’s not necessarily what you know, but who you know… One thing the architect said that helped get the driveway permit approved was that I hadn’t been one of those “difficult” out-of-state property owners who frequently calls and nags the county office about their permit status. Since I’m not in the local area full time, I look to the builder, architect, and excavator as my surrogates because they know the area, the people, and have established rapport with those who can impact project progress. With Winter rapidly approaching, once the septic system is installed, the next phase won’t begin until the Spring… until then.