Red Tape & Bureaucracy
Published By mike
I’ve been trying to get this post pulled together for a while now, been a while since I posted anything. We’ve been making some progress (as you’ll see by the photos below) but really I’ve been dealing with a bunch of other stuff lately.
I went in to apply for the construction site permit at the beginning of September with Stearns County and apparently since I’m increasing the usable space of the building (the space above what was the grocery side will now be considered ‘usable’), my project now is subject to setback and right-of-way concerns so I’m having to apply for a variance since the building is (already) too tall and too close to the road.
Side Note: For anyone reading this looking to do a similar project to this one, keep in mind that you can actually apply for your construction permit before you own a property as long as you have the owner’s sign-off on the application. I was unaware of this (mostly because I never thought to ask the question). Had I planned ahead I should have been able to have all (most) of this taken care of before now.
A part of the variance process was a land survey which revealed several issues, the biggest one being that since the property lines are not perpendicular to the road, part of the shed behind the garage was on the neighbor’s land and the back corner of The Store was closer than 10′ away from the line, which would require (at least one) additional variance. Instead of that, I’ve been working with the land surveyor, a real estate lawyer, and the truly fantastic neighbors around The Store property to re-set the property lines so that everyone’s buildings are on their own property and the lines are now perpendicular to the road (just as the buildings are).
I was able to get my variance application in by the deadline, along with all of the requirements, so it seems (at least at this point) that we’re on-track to be on the agenda for the Planning Commission meeting on the 26th of October. *fingers crossed*
Anyway, time for the important stuff that I know you came here to see, the current pictures (well, at least since Sept. 11). Unfortunately it’s nothing super exciting but we were able to get the rest of the floor pulled up and stacked up. (there’s a couple of days’ worth of pictures here, looks like I missed a post)
Gary has been spending some time up there tearing out plaster since the last time that I was there working on it. He found the same thing on the north wall as we found on the other side of the room, for some reason towards the front of the building, the walls get a little thicker at a certain point. Definitely a little interesting, we don’t have really any idea why this was.
Very cool to see the pics and remember. I am Karen (VanHeel) Lutzke, Rich and Delores, and had always enjoyed visiting at the house/store/bar. Good memories.
Mike, you must be one of the great grand kids??