A building/zoning permit was granted in January 2020 for an E. Chestnut St. R-1 property to add a new garage that was seriously over-sized and non-compliant based on the Code restriction.  How does the City Code that restricts the size of this garage to 24’ x 17’ turn into an approval for a size of 24’ x 40’????

To add insult to injury the owner who was given the inappropriate approval for the illegitimate-sized garage applied for an Appeal in May through the Board of Zoning Appeals asking for a bigger 30’ x 40’ garage.  Remember that this property sits in a single-family district neighborhood like many in the city.  How would you feel if your neighbor wanted to build a garage in his back yard next to you that was as big as acommon-size ranch home?

This request for an Appeal to build the larger garage alerted the neighbors that a 24’ x 30’ garage was unfortunately already approved by the Zoning Enforcement Department five months earlier. The neighbor in turn filed an Appeal to the first building permit issued in January.  Their Appeal was brought to the BZA on July 15 only to be denied and the next door neighbor was turned away.  The reason was that the neighbor did not appeal within 20 days of the permit being issued in January as is required by the Zoning Code. What citizen knows that law?  

The BZA voted down the neighbor’s appeal because of that requirement.  First, how does any citizen know that a zoningpermit is issued in Mount Vernon?  You won’t get an alert by mail,  you won’t see it in the News under the PUBLIC NOTICE section or anywhere else.  The City does not have to reveal or disclose issued zoning permits.  How are we supposed to know what’s happening in the city or even next door.  The only alert the public may be currently given is the requirement that the property owner must immediately and conspicuously display the 8-1/2” x 11” poster board permit on the property usually in a front window of the house. What if the approved Permit is not display until 21 days after issued?  Any appeal is lost.  In thecase described above the owner failed to place the permit anywhere on the property.  As a matter of fact, the permit was not even displayed as of the day of the July BZA Meeting.  In our opinion this failure should have been enough to allow the BZA to hear the complaint appeal.

It’s time to ask our city leaders to change this policy.  Issued Building/Zoning Permits should be disclosed in the newspaper every week and a notice should be mailed to the adjacent property owners.  There needs to be more transparency in Permits being issued.  If this policy isn’t changed, we will see more Garages and Barns like the one permitted at Martinsburg Rd and Concord St.  Beware, maybe that size building will be coming to your neighborhood next.

Results of the Appeal Request from the July 15 BZA Meetingregarding the January Incorrectly Issued Permit.

A vote was taken on whether the appeal should be heard, based on the timeliness of the appeal. The result of the vote was 4-1 not to hear the neighbor’s appeal.

Vote Results to Hear the Appeal.

1 Yes: Don Carr

4 No:  Michael Percy, Susie Simpson, Bill Smith, Kate Aryanata