Quote Originally Posted by Ken Fitzgerald View Post
Did you ask the ordnance enforcement people? Whenever I have wanted to do something that must be to code, they have always provided clear, concise reasoning and in fact, in two cases, gave me some suggested alternates that made my renovations meet code and saved time and money!
Now that's an interesting experience. The only answer I've ever got from that exercise is "that's what it says in the zoning ordinance" or "that's the law." Not that those are wrong answers, but they're not very informative.

My favorite was trying to get an explanation for why, since the zoning ordinance prohibited a guest house from being more than 600 square feet and from having a basement, I was required to put in a septic system sized for a 3 bedroom, 6 occupant, dwelling. The answer was right - the house size restrictions were in the local ordinance, and the septic system requirement was in state law (with an unexercised option for local modification).