Story

A protected oak cost me two years, then saved me an $11k service upgrade

I started this in 2022 by walking into the planning counter with a hand drawing of a cottage over my detached garage. The woman at the counter looked at it for maybe eight seconds and said the garage was two feet inside the rear setback, which the city had tolerated since 1948 but wouldn't tolerate on a new second story. That was the whole meeting.

So I sat on it. City rewrote its ADU chapter the following year, detached units allowed on basically every lot in my zone, and I came back with a real set of drawings. Then my neighbor filed a letter. Not about the unit, about shade on her vegetable beds. Planning didn't care about her beds, but her letter mentioned the oak on the property line, and that woke up the arborist review nobody had flagged. Protected tree, critical root zone, no footings inside it.

My designer moved the footprint four feet toward the house, lost a closet and a window seat, and the thing cleared review in six weeks. Total cost of the delay was two full years and about $9k in redrawn plans.

The part I still think about is that the tree saved me money. Sliding toward the house shortened the sewer run by 30 feet and let me tie into the existing panel instead of a new service. My electrician told me the new service would've been $11k on its own. My neighbor and I are fine now. She gets tomatoes, I got a cheaper trench.

6 replies

samantha_ruizAU4APRO6

The tolerated nonconforming garage is such a classic trap. Mine was the same story, except the city made me choose between demolishing it or keeping it as a garage forever. I kept the garage and built new in the corner. Cost me the cheap shell I thought I was buying.

laurenkim53Passive

Out where I look, nobody's reviewing arborist reports. The county has one building official and he's also the guy who does septic. That cuts both ways, permits are quick but there isn't anyone to tell you the leach field can't handle a second kitchen until you've already paid for the kitchen.

angela_burkeServicePRO6

$11k for a service upgrade sounds low to me honestly, depends who's pulling the meter. Nice that the four foot move paid for itself twice over.

kevin_lombardPG1BPRO5

Critical root zone was new to me. So the protected tree basically has its own setback that you can't put footings inside? Is that a city thing or is it everywhere?

raj_mehta14CapitalPRO6

@juniper it's local, my town has nothing like it. Anchor, the thing that gets me is you spent two years waiting for an ordinance rewrite you had no control over and it worked out. I'd have talked myself out of the lot.

bmoreno23AB1B

I've got zero deals under my belt, and what stands out is that the counter person told you the real problem in eight seconds. I keep imagining these processes as mysterious and they sound more like a person looking at a drawing.