LIVERMORE FALLS – Any people planning to erect a barn, shed, garage, deck, gazebo or other structure 200 square feet or larger on their properties, including a covered portable garage, need to get a building permit.
Anyone planning to increase the size of an existing structure, such as adding 200 square feet or more to a house, will also need a building permit. Anyone planning to move a structure that is 200 square feet or larger from one lot to another needs a building permit.
Those structures could be 10 feet by 20 feet, or 13 feet by 16 feet, or any dimensions that equal 200 or more square feet.
The new requirement is a result of voters’ action at last Wednesday’s town meeting. It took effect immediately.
Erecting a tent of at least 200 square feet wouldn’t require a building permit, said Code Enforcement Officer Brenda Medcoff on Tuesday.
The building notification permits are free. Applications are available at the town office. Medcoff said she has 30 days to sign a permit, but she expects to have a quick turnaround of one to two weeks. A project drawing is required on the application. It can be a hand-drawn sketch, she said.
For years, residents rejected the establishment of building permits in town. In 1997, they approved a building lot standards ordinance, which grandfathered lots established before that date regardless of size as long as they complied with the state plumbing code.
But at the June 15 town meeting, voters adopted a building notification ordinance and repealed the section of the 1997 building lot standards ordinance that had grandfathered those lots. As a result, all lots have to meet the ordinance’s requirements before a building is erected.
The idea behind that repeal wasn’t to render lots useless, Medcoff said. Instead, it will allow her to spend more time in the field rather than in the office looking up deeds to find the date a lot was established. It also allows her to see where growth in town is, check that people are complying with local and state laws, and make sure the town is aware when there is another taxable building so everybody is paying their fair share, she said.
The fines for violations of each ordinance range from $50 to $2,500.
“Probably the first year, there will be a lot of warnings,” Medcoff said. “I’d like to get some posters up to give people kind of an awareness. I think once people get the hang of it, it’s not going to be as much a hassle as people think it’s going to be. This is going to be a trial time and we may find out we need to do corrections or amendments to the ordinance the following year.”
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