Planning Permissions for a Shed

Know Where You Live

• The first and most important thing to know is where you live and know the laws by which you are governed. You'd be surprised how many people don't know in which municipality they live or which rules they must follow. Here's a clue: your mailing address isn't necessarily the physical location at which you reside. For example, Deodate, Pennsylvania, has a mailing address of Elizabethtown. Some states, like California, Texas and Florida, to name a few, have unincorporated territories that are governed by the rules and regulations of the county in which they reside. Those areas are considered unincorporated because the municipality has no local government and therefore are subject to the laws of the county. If you're part of a homeowners association, there are undoubtedly rules and regulations you must follow. Those rules add restrictions to the municipal or county laws and are more stringent than those of the the municipality or county in which you reside.
  
  

What to Do with What You Know

• Now that you know where you live, you must contact the local authorities. If you live in an incorporated area like a city or borough or township, like most people, call city hall, the township office or borough hall and ask to speak with either the planning and zoning office or code enforcement. Different governments are set up differently, but whichever you contact should be able to direct you to the appropriate official to get the ball rolling.
  
  

The Official Process

• Tell the officials what you have in mind. The officials will tell you the guidelines. Sometimes, what you have in mind doesn't fit into the regulations and so you may have to undergo another process to obtain what in some places is called a special exception. Usually, if the problem is not of your making and there is a sound reason for building a shed of the size you want and at a particular location on your property. So if you're armed with sound reasons for the size and location of what you want to build and the local authorities don't grant you a waiver, request a hearing. Local government (believe it or not) can be quite reasonable. The hearing is called different names in different locales, but the process essentially allows you to plead your case before an independent review board and allows the municipality and neighbors to present their rationale on why the structure should or should not be permitted. Some examples might include prohibitions on a permanent structure to be erected a certain distance from a property line or the community's right-of-way.
  
  

Permits and permissions

• If the shed is of a small dimension, most zoning allows property owners to build them simply by paying a fee for a building permit. And if it's small enough, many municipalities won't even require that. Usually within the building codes there are specifications on the size of outbuildings and placement and if you conform to those laws, there is little difficulty.
  
  

Homeowners Associations

• If you belong to a homeowners association, there was most likely a raft of rules, regulations and conditions that you had to agree to before purchasing your property. You probably didn't read them all because they are often 64,000 pages long and include restrictions on how high you can grow roses and the number of people who can come to dinner (okay, that's an exaggeration but not much of one). Most homeowners associations have a board of directors who are elected by members of the development and meet regularly. So it's important that if your shed-building plan is not specifically addressed in the regulations, it's best to get approval from the board.
  
  

Intangibles

• In some places there are quasi-governmental bodies empowered to enforce laws of a sort you have probably never heard of before. This is what makes the first phone call to the local planning and zoning officials so important. For example, there is such an entity in California known as The Viewshed Commission. It's charge is basically to protect the way the California shoreline looks. The Commission has blocked houses from being built that can be seen from the ocean and even became entangled with a local seaside town along the Central Coast that wanted to build small kiosks where motorists could pay to park at parking meters. So before going through the expense and time of building your shed, do your homework thoroughly.