Approved

I attended to Zoning Board meeting last night and I got to watch about five other "cases" go before me. By the time it got to me I thought it would be easy but I always get a bit nervous in front of people so my heart was beating pretty hard by the time I got up to the podium. It wasn't hard though.

I stated that I want to get a special permit because I was extending the foot print of my porch and I needed a variance because I wanted to work on a corner of my house that is "pre-existing, non-conforming." They quickly informed me that I had it backwards, and then asked why I was replacing my porch.... Have you ever seen the Sienfeld episode where Jerry is returning something and they ask him why he returning it and he asks, "why do you want to know?" and they tell him that its just for the record. So he says the reason he's returning it is, "Spite." ... That's how I felt for a moment - I felt like saying, "It's my property and I just want to do it. If you have a problem with what I'm doing let me know, but the reasons as to why I'm doing it should be inconsequential."

Well, I told them that the porch was unsafe because it is rotting and that I wanted to enclose it to make better use of the space. They did ask why I was increasing the size and I replied that it was for design reasons and I thought it would look better.

Then they finally talked about it for a bit and then approved it.... Yahoo. Now I just have to wait for the paperwork to go through... About a month.