Dealing With Your Local Planning Department
First off, let me explain to you what your local planning
department and its. These aren't the people that are going to plan your
birthdays or anniversaries for you, these are the people who will tell
you, what you can and cannot build on your property.
Most developed cities and counties, have a local planning department and
building department with in their city or county offices. The planning
department is in charge of all of the planning for the entire city or
county.
These people approve all of the roads, houses, commercial and industrial
properties. They are also in charge of all of the property lines and
building lot locations. These people are the first step in a long line
of other departments that will approve or disapprove any new buildings
or structures and additions on your property.
So before you ever plan on building a house, adding a room addition onto
your existing house, or even building a shed in your backyard, you need
to go down to the Planning Department, to make sure that it's okay with
them, first.
Let's say that you build a shed, 1 foot away from your property line and
you didn't get a building permit or go through your local planning
department. Their minimum requirements for any buildings are supposed to
be at least 15 feet away from your neighbor's property line.
They will make you remove the entire shed or a portion of it, to make
sure that you meet their requirements. In other words, these people are
like God in the business of religion. What ever they say, is what you do
and that's just the way it is.
If you're ever planning on building anything on your property, it
doesn't hurt to make a phone call or go down to your local planning
department, just to make sure that you're allowed to build on your
property.
It sure beats, spending a few thousand dollars, to build something and
then having to spend the time to tear it down, because it was built a
few feet in the wrong direction.