Another on adjoining land

[bill1952]

Reading the other current thread on property lines made me think of this. We own 4 adjoing parcels, all bought together. It's divide one way by a property line and the other - more or less perpendicular - by a town line. I know I can have the two on one side of the town line combined - easy, free, and my total assessment would go down, so no real restraint. What Is like to know if in your jurisdiction or in your experience, will zoning setbacks always apply to the town line, without a variance being granted?

(Just to complicate it, the town line is more or less parallel to a road at one side and a river at the other - so I think the town line is a rear yard line both sides of it.)

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

I was chair of my town's P&Z commission once, and I've been involved in multiple projects over the years on sites that spanned town lines. At my former ABO job we had a university whose gymnasium building was located in two towns. I have never seen anyone suggest that there should be any setback from the town line. The sticky wicket is that the respective zoning setback from property lines are probably different in adjoining municipalities, so the designer has to be careful to observe the proper setbacks for each portion of the site.

Bill, do you really have four (4) parcels -- established by deed -- or do you have two parcels, each of which has a town line running through it?

 

[bill1952]

4 parcels by deeds and tax map. I guess I can share tax map clip since its available to anyone. Diagonal is the town line. All 4 or just under 9 acres together. (Same person is zoning and building one man department in both towns.)

 

[tmurray]

Similar to your map, we had a building proposed with the town line running through it perpendicularly. Both municipalities dictated "lot line" as the setback. There was no discussion of the municipal boundaries in the zoning requirements at all.

Basically, both municipalities' requirements applied simultaneously.

A lot of discussions about joint enforcement with the adjacent municipality prior to issuing that permit...

 

[ICE]

I experienced a subdivision that was a about a mile long and one street wide for most of it. At about the three-quarter point is a county line. I had the three-quarter portion and it was built first. The building sewer ran down hill toward the one-quarter portion. Once the completion reached past the midpoint entry, the uphill houses were sold and occupied. It didn't take long to discover that the sewer was not connected at the end that's in another county. The sewer filled .... made a mess .... had to be pumped .... for a few months.

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

4 parcels by deeds and tax map. I guess I can share tax map clip since its available to anyone. Diagonal is the town line. All 4 or just under 9 acres together. (Same person is zoning and building one man department in both towns.)
View attachment 13426

Wow!

So two of the four are landlocked. I don't think that's even legal in this state. In 55+ years as an architect and/or building official and/or zoning honcho I have never encountered a landlocked parcel in the wild -- only read about 'em.

 

[bill1952]

Well, the river is navigable and that side is considered the front yard, though the river requires more setback than zoning.

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

So you build a house on one of those river-front lots. How does the fire department get there if there's a fire? Does the township have a fireboat? What about police and ambulance?

 

[bill1952]

Well, at this point, I put in a gravel driveway to the river. Not sure an engine could get down it though the dump trucks did. No, no fire boat on this river. (There is on one near by.)

The plan was on house on the 4 pieces, but that could change. Really no immediate plans - just dreaming. I'd like a platform and tent and out house but no interest in that from my spouse.

 

[Inspector Gadget]

Similar to your map, we had a building proposed with the town line running through it perpendicularly. Both municipalities dictated "lot line" as the setback. There was no discussion of the municipal boundaries in the zoning requirements at all.

Basically, both municipalities' requirements applied simultaneously.

A lot of discussions about joint enforcement with the adjacent municipality prior to issuing that permit...

That could have been a nightmare - thinking different landscaping rules, different finish requirements ... different parking requirements, etc.

 

[bill1952]

That could have been a nightmare - thinking different landscaping rules, different finish requirements ... different parking requirements, etc.

Probably not too bad for me being same official. I will have to check again but thought he said I have to treat the town/property line like a rear yard and I think that's 25' or 35' setback in that zone. So just trying to be informed as possible and have all my questions when I ask again. Thank you for the posts!

Double goofy is both parcels to lower left side and one to right on river are in the school district in the town to left. Just the one parcel on the road to right is in that towns school district. Confused me first time I got 3 tax bills from one; which of course is school district. Municipal is 2 + 2 as expected.

 

[Mech]

Wow!

So two of the four are landlocked. I don't think that's even legal in this state. In 55+ years as an architect and/or building official and/or zoning honcho I have never encountered a landlocked parcel in the wild -- only read about 'em.

I would think the deeds get altered to include a right-of-way for the land locked parcel to reach the road. Maybe the deeds show a right-of-way or at least did at one point in time.

A family member of mine had a knock on his door one day from his new neighbor asking to use the right-of-way to reach his property. The landlocked deed showed the right-of-way. It was described as "two horse widths" wide. The current deed for my family member's property did not have this. I assume someone forgot to duplicate the verbiage during deed transfer through the years.

 

[bill1952]

Well the region is called The Thousand Islands and dock to dock by boat is pretty common. This was all farmland or actually perhaps part of a hunting lodge business, and they just plug it up into a lot of 200' slices. Previous owners of my 200' piece and another owner split the in between so 100' strip. It's never been developed or nor has land on both sides of town line been owned by different people. I'm just guessing but suspect if selling separately I'd have to have that deed work done.