Hey JP – good to “see” you. I remember your patio and it sounds like a great project.
As you probably know – the granny flat laws are pretty rigid in San Diego. But I believe they were relaxed a bit, last year.
Our sticking issue was the offstreet parking and the “street wall” requirement. We were only a few inches shy of having it work without having to literally pave over our front yard. We showed them that – showed them we could meet the technical requirements – by paving over (too much impervious cover is not good for groundwater, storm sewer, etc.) We offered another option – which would have been more expensive… and reduced the total number of offstreet parking spots (reorienting the garage/driveway) – which would have been technically within the rules… but again – with negative consequences to the intent (off street parking). They gave us the variance for the 7″.
We found that if we kept working with the reviewers at development services… showing good faith on our part, offering solutions/counter proposals… we were eventually able to get the permit approved. But my husband spend many many hours down at development services working through it.
Given your neighbor situtation… I would definitely want to keep everything legal. We had some neighbors express concern – but since we had a permit, and everything was on the up and up, they were unable to do anything about it.
(The same neighbors have since told us that they really like the way it turned out – they thought it was going to be an eyesore, and its’ really nice looking.)
