I have a one bedroom Studio that is part of my house that I was going to rent I ran an ad on Craigslist and within an hour or two of it being listed I got a return message from Caitlin Safford from the town of Truckee telling me that I had to take the listing off of Craigslist and that I could not rent it so I took the listing off and told her it was gone she said it was not that simple he said I needed to have two choices either I could make it a legal Adu or that I would have to get a permit to have it demoed because when I built my house I had that area listed as storage other than I had a bathroom and a utility room that was on the original permit and I never got a permit to finish that area.
So I went to the building department and told them that I cannot make it in an Adu or an additional dwelling unit because it would require a septic system separate then mine and I don’t have enough property to put another septic system so I then told them that I just wanted to get a permit to make it living space then I paid the building fees $500 then when it went to permit process they would not permit the project unless I signed a deed restriction which I refuse to do therefore they held me up for 5 months of rental income plus I had to pay the building fees plus I had to pay an architect to drop a complete set of plans for the building department and now they are not letting me get the permit to do the work and are telling me that if I don’t sign the deed restriction by the first of November they are going to take me to court
As far as I know she hasn’t been to my house but I have been to the building department and I have met with her. After I refused to sign the deed restriction she said that she looked at the set of plans that I submitted and saw that there was a shed that wasn’t on the original plans and that I had to remove it as well I told her it’s been there for 15 years she said it’s no big deal all you have to do is take it down then go to the health department find out the code to the property lines and then pay a bunch of money for a new survey to Mark the Four Points of my property then find out how big of building I can build then have an architect to design it and then go to the building department get it approved pay the fees and then get a permit build it have it inspected so basically to tear down what I have that is functional and working and just replace it as she says would probably cost me about 80,000 or more.
I totally agree that they are trying to run locals out of town which is ironic because they are supposed to be proponents of people that live and work in the area also by making me forced out of town because I can’t afford to live here they will lose a contractor and I really wonder who they think is going to do the work once they run out of workers out of town I guess they will continue to build low-income homes for the workers and have control over them.
When I told them that the shed that I built has been standing for 15 years and that I am a contractor and I would not build something substandard they said they are also the safety department and they don’t want the building falling down on anybody I’ve been a contractor for 40 years and I have never had one single job come back to me with a problem or a substandard building.
I completed the work as they asked I took the kitchen out I took the stove out I removed the gas line I took cabinets out and I went and did everything that was code compliant 6 ft of counter space etc etc I then took pictures of the work that I had done because they had given me permission went in and showed it to them and asked if they could inspect it so I could get my permit to turn it into living space they said oh that’s a code compliance but lets see what I can do then they replied back with an email a couple of days later saying that they can’t issue me the permit until I signed the deed restriction. It is been since May that I have completed the work and I have paid the fees to the building department but they won’t send it to the permit process.
