PAC Success!

Our variance application sailed through the PAC. Unfortunately, this came after nearly 2 hours of sitting through public concerns over other zoning and subdivision cases. Regardless, our first hurdle has been overcome!

Armed with this achievement, I contact the Manager of Heritage and Culture Affairs for the city to learn more about our next challenge - the Preservation Board grant of a "Certificate of Appropriateness". This gentleman has been very pleasant to deal with thus far, and has assured Jon and I that our request is one of the simpler ones facing the Board currently. Still, our conversation on Thursday uncovered that I had more work to do, as he asked about the new elevation of the home due to the foundation; the source of siding materials; the number, position and type of basement windows being installed - all things I couldn't answer.

So we put in a call to our general contractor, Mike O'Regan, and arranged to meet him at the house on Friday. Mike confirmed that on the rear side of the house, we would have 6" of "new" exposure, and 36" on the yard side. He confirmed that the windows would be egress windows, 24" x 36", and that any siding purchased to replace the siding that was removed to facilitate the jacking would be matching pine shipboard from Kent's orders.

New tasks for Jon and I were also assigned. We'll ask NB Power to cut down the branches on the two trees to be excavated, and we'll make inquiries to the city's Engineering and Waterworks groups to see if they have any requirements related to our building permit application. I'll return to the Manager of Heritage with my new information in the hopes of securing further support for our project. The Preservation Board meets on May 13th and so he has asked for all our information by May 6th in order to update the members ahead of the decision.

In the meantime, Mike O'Regan will contact the city to determine which inspector will review and approve our permit application. With any luck, it will be one of the more accessible inspectors, who's straightforward and easy to work with, and who is familiar with Mike's work. We're aiming to have the building permit in hand just after the Preservation Board grants our Appropriateness Certificate, so that we can break ground in the 3rd week of May!