Ed Vitale: Building: A Self-Help Guide For The Owner Builder

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Let us begin, then, by defining the different codes. The explanations are presented here in the form of a narrative checklist (including some background and editorializing to put the terms in their proper perspective) of the points an owner-builder should consider as he prepares to buy a piece of property on which to construct his own shelter. (A few of these laws have less impact on the rural self-builder than others, but an understanding of the various regulations—and the differences between them—can put you just one step further along toward the successful completion of your own building.)

ZONING ORDINANCES. The first consideration that an owner-builder must contemplate when he buys a piece of land is whether the local zoning ordinance (if any) allows the property to be used for the construction and occupancy of a single-family dwelling.

A zoning code is an ordinance adopted by a municipality or county that divides a town or county into different land use classifications. Certain sections of a city, for example, may be designated as business, industrial, and various kinds of residential zones (from single family up to and including high-rise multi-family). A single-family dwelling can't be built in an industrial zone (without going through an expensive, time consuming, and not always successful variance procedure) just as you wouldn't be allowed to put a factory in the middle of a residential district.

(Legally, it's the state, through its constitution or by virtue of a statute adopted pursuant to its police powers, which authorizes—though does not compel—a municipality or county to enact a zoning ordinance. The local or county government which desires to pass such an ordinance can then divide its land into different use classifications. These classifications must be reasonable—that is, the zoned use must bear some relationship to the uses that already exist in a district—or else the ordinance is unconstitutional.)

Zoning laws may seem to be a rather severe intrusion on the individual's right to develop his property as he sees fit, but this kind of governmental regulation of private property was constitutionally sanctioned by the Supreme Court of the United States back in the mid-'20's. Thus the government's right to dictate, to a limited degree, the use you and I make of our land has been firmly established in our jurisprudence.

Besides regulating land use, zoning ordinances also specify a minimum lot size for each different use, how far a building must be located from the front, rear, and sides of the property on which it sits, and the height of the structure. (These provisions are sometimes known as bulk requirements.) Some ordinances even try to legislate aesthetics . . . how buildings should look! It is these bulk requirements—in part—that have helped perpetuate a conformity that has stifled creative approaches to shelter construction.

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