HomeMy WebLinkAboutBLD2000-00623 Hearing - BLD Letters / Memos - 5/28/2004 May-28-04 01 :08P P _ 02
Mason County Code Enforcement 5/28/2004
Attn; Kristin French
First I want to say that Debbie Lemonnier and myself have been married and her last
name has changed to Cady. She wanted to be at the hearing to give and provide testimony in
response to this inquiry. Unfortunately she was not able to attend because of the birth of our first
child by C-section which prevented her from attending.
When the idea of a storage shed first came to me all I could think about was how great it
would be to have a very small, but secure place, that I could store my crab pots, shrimp pot,
fishing gear etc. And that 1 would not have to lug everything down the hill and all the way back.
A friend of mine in the building and remodeling business said that a small storage shed as long as
its no bigger than 10' x 12' floor space, would not need to be permitted. Well that is exactly what
we did. Our shed is 10' x 12' floor space. As we were building this shed the question came up
that the view of the water was so beautiful, why can't we attach a deck to the shed to enjoy the
view from my property. Well my builder friend said it would be simple and very easy to do, so
we did it.Now it only took us 3 weekends to build this simple 10' x 12 ` storage shed and we still
had a few things to do such as siding etc. The next weekend I made it out to my property to
finish up my storage shed and a stop work order was posted. I thought to myself how could they
tell me to stop work on a structure that did not need a permit.
Well l received a letter that told me that because of the attached deck to the shed 1 would
have to apply for a permit. This happened in April of 2000. 1 was trying to do the right thing and
I paid for and applied for a permit. The next letter I received told me I would need to get
engineering Ian for this 10' x 12' storage shed. Though this seemed extremely excessive for a
ni g
g 6P
storage shed that is only 10' x 12' but wanting to do the correct thing I paid an engineer to draw
up plans and spec on the shed. The engineer questioned why I needed to do this for such a small
structure, but he wasn't going to turn down a job. I sent the engineering plans in as soon as
received them. Again I spent more money and did exactly what the County asked of me. Tile
next letter I received from the county told me that they could not go forward with the permit
process because an order of invalidity had been placed on the county. After doing everything the
county had been telling me to do, now they come back to me with this. What had I been doing all
of those things for? For nothing is how I felt.
Now I am being called to a hearing regarding this matter. When was the order of
invalidity lifted in Mason County? Why was I not contacted at that time? Who was responsible
for letting us know?
Now the shed has been there for 4 yr.and not moved an inch. It has been great being able
to store my gear in my shed. This shed does not have any water or electricity to it. It is used for
storage only. We bought this property because we wanted a place to be able to bring our family
for campouts, fishing and hiking. As a property owner and property tax payer in your county our
rights as owners have been slipping away for years. We used to be able to with our land as we
dreamed about doing. Now those dreams are being taken away from us. It seems that now days,
as a property owner, we have no rights.
I have enclosed a copy of the plans I submitted to Mason County showing the floor plan
of 10' x 12' (120 SF) small enough for a non- permitted structure. In June of 2004 it is my
understanding that Mason County will allow a structure to be built without a permit as long as it
does not exceed 200 SF.
l would like you to consider letting the storage-shed stay where it is. 1f I need to
make alterations in the structure to keep it, I will do so. If you have any question for Debbie or
myself, please feel free to give us a call at(253) 569-9292.
Steve Cady