"Building Codes In The Boonies?"
That's how Kate Coe titled her Facebook post linking to this piece, and she's absolutely right about how nuts it is. Joyce Wadler writes in the NYT about a couple that worked around building codes in the middle of Nowhere, Maine, to transform their house. Utterly idiotic that they had to. What, the owls might feel funny about a chimney that isn't state-approved?
...a small, dark, two-story cabin made of barn wood that, they would later tell friends, resembled an oversize outhouse.It, too, was boxed in by constraints, severe ones as dwellings go. Regulations forbade expanding not only its footprint, which was just 540 square feet on the first floor, but its height as well. Even adding a deck was not permitted. But the couple found the secluded property, on a tidal lake called Goose Marsh Pond, on Mount Desert Island, so breathtaking that after some due diligence to see what changes might be made, they bought it.
They found a designer, George Gekas, who understood that it was not the size of the box that matters, but what you did with it. Without increasing the volume of the box -- and by actually cutting into it in some places -- he turned the house into a light-filled space. When the tide is out, you can spot herons and kingfishers poking about in the mud flats through the floor-to-ceiling windows, and when the tide is in, you feel as if you are on a ship.
But we have to have builing codes. What if someone did what ever they wanted imagine the horror?
What if they sold the house and the moron buying was too stupid to ask questions and do his due dilegence?
We have to protects the stupid people Amy, Oh wont some one please think of the (mental)children
lujlp at October 6, 2011 10:18 AM
All I know of Maine, I learned from Stephen King (and Richard Hooker.)
Regardless, they are perhaps not so far out in the boonies as I would normally associate with being out in the boonies. For instance, it looks like from the center of the pond, going out in a 500' radius you can encounter seven homes.
http://g.co/maps/vqayx
Also, the story says it was regulations, but doesn't say it was building codes. Maybe it was, and since I've never owned or built a house, what do I know?
But I wonder if the regulations were more related to where the house is sited on a wetlands, or the size of their lot, or for other reasons.
jerry at October 6, 2011 11:07 AM
It appears to be zoning issues, not building codes.
The NYT style section describes the story as:
"Dr. Lowell E. Schnipper and Hester Hill Schnipper's three-bedroom home in Maine.
Facing strict zoning rules that didn’t allow them to increase the footprint or height of their house, a couple transformed it from a dark cabin into a bright three-bedroom home."
fwiw, there is a zoning map here: http://www.mtdesert.org/Public_Documents/MtDesertME_BBoard/ZONING_w_shoreland_and_highlights.pdf
That seems to indicate they are in a village residential zone with 250' buffer -- I have no idea what that means.
jerry at October 6, 2011 11:21 AM
How do materials like that work in a Maine winter?
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at October 6, 2011 2:29 PM
I liked the alliteration but what difference does it make? They can't build a deck? Who are they hurting?
KateC at October 6, 2011 8:06 PM
That sounds more likely to be some sort of growth act or environmental impact restrictions.
If the links above are correct, it clearly is not the boonies.
The Former Banker at October 6, 2011 9:49 PM
This is most likely due to restrictions specific to their development, not Maine generally. Though the chimney reg may be a state code.
An issue that many of the rural NE states have been facing is that they're being settled by people from Mass and NY, who typically buy vacation/seasonal homes. These folks often want all sorts of restrictions on how you can build and renovate property. They moved to Maine, or Vermont, because they think that it's quaint and want to force the local people to live that way. This affects not only residences but also businesses and downtown areas. Basically they want northern NE to be a big theme park for wealthy old people. This is one of the reasons that there's some animosity towards this element among people who live and work in these states year round.
torval at October 7, 2011 6:44 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/10/building-codes.html#comment-2541631">comment from torvalIt would hurt how if they had a 1,000-foot first floor?
Amy Alkon
at October 7, 2011 6:50 AM
Thanks Torval. The rich also retire in Montana, but the locals refuse to be tamed, thus big houses,big trucks, and so on.
KateC at October 7, 2011 7:47 AM
>>It would hurt how if they had a 1,000-foot first floor?
It's hurts when Mitzi Rubenstein looks across the lake and sees that someone has a bigger house than she does.
pp at October 7, 2011 8:20 AM
Problem: restrictions and covenents.
Solution: buy a 20 acre lot and without restrictions and covenents. Plop your house down in the middle and stick no tresspassing signs on the fence line.
I R A Darth Aggie at October 7, 2011 8:27 AM
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