BATTLING CITY HALL FOR THE SAKE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Nearly a year ago I approached the Minneapolis Zoning Department about our project to make sure everything Erin and I planned was within the rules of City Zoning. At the time they told me everything was fine and actually gave me approval to move forward. I thought this would make everything clean and simple, boy was I wrong. One week before we started construction all hell broke loose. I walked into the inspections department to pull the permit and they told me our existing footprint was not conforming to the appropriate setbacks. Our existing footprint is three feet closer to the curb than our nearest neighbor’s house. In order to conform with zoning requirements, we would have to push our new addition back 3 feet. Keep in mind the new additions are all prefabricated panels and waiting in a warehouse, all the while we’re paying interest on them.

We decided to build on our existing footprint to preserve greenspace on our lot. We wanted to avoid a large addition off the side or back of the house that would eat up yard space and result in a lop-sided looking house.

Most cities allow you to build on your existing footprints if they are reasonably on your property lines. This is typical because if your home is built before a certain era it won’t conform to current zoning codes and you can’t remodel/add-on/ re-shingle etc. without a zoning variance. However Minneapolis doesn’t embrace this outlook. They failed to realize the setback issue when they initially granted us approval, but now say we’ll have to get a variance which usually takes 4-6 months.

Fortunately we have friends. I really encourage people to talk to their public officials. Their job is to stand up for you when you get kicked around by the City. That’s why we turned to Lisa Goodman & Scott Benson our City of Minneapolis council members, a.k.a. superheroes. This powerhouse team advocated for us to zoning officials and ultimately encouraged them to grant us permission to build. The compromise was to go through the variance process at a later date! After a week of somewhat unpleasant negotiations we received our building permit.

However this brings up a really important issue: Cities have a huge role in creating policies and zoning rules that can truly impact sustainability. Some cities, like Chicago and Vancouver, have taken major steps to green their cities. Generic rules don’t always lead to the best policies. Check out some of these great websites and go out there and get involved. Talk with your elected officials and get involved. Greening your homes helps, but making entire cities sustainable is the ultimate challenge. Check out these websites to see what others have started in their cities:

Regional Environmental Center: http://www.rec.org

The Sustainable Cities Blog: http://bettercities.squarespace.com/

Green Cities: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/americas_50_gre.php

Eco Builders: http://www.ecocitybuilders.org/