Moving building envelopes

Building Envelopes

For those unfamiliar with this term, "building envelopes," this is the area on which the land owner may legally build structures. Typically, setbacks from property lines and environmentally sensitive areas are the only factors that go into deciding where an owner may not build. In Marin county when a parcel is created (via land division) the plan must include locations for all future structures, roads, utilities and septic leach fields. These areas may be significantly more restrictive than the setbacks would dictate. This was the case for us – out of the roughly 6 acres of land we purchased, less than 10% was designated as buildable.

Our building envelopes are currently set in a heavily-wooded area of our property. Even though the location had previously been approved, we would still need to get permission from the county to remove more than 30 trees to make room for the home.

We hired arborists to look at the trees we assumed would have to be removed. Most of the trees are mature, but less significant species (bay laurel and tanoaks). Most of the tanoaks on our property are infected with sudden oak death, so they are either already dead or dying.

These fungal cankers are a sure sign of infection

Our primary concern was for two particular trees:  a coastal live oak and a mature douglas fir tree. These trees are environmentally significant and also quite beautiful. The footprint of the house could just barely fit between the two trees, but arborists confirmed our fear that excavating near the trees might destabilize the roots and destroy the tree. If we do build in close proximity to the trees we will have to engineer a more expensive foundation that mitigates any risk of severing structural roots.

Proposing Change

Initially, our county planner informed us that it would be unwise to attempt to change the location of the building envelopes because it would reopen contentious discussions with the community about the original subdividing of the land.  We had up until now assumed that there was no possibility of having the location changed, but I went back to the planner to make a case for the change.

Again, I was warned by our planner that the process to change the building envelopes is very involved and costly because the existing building envelopes are tied to the originating permits granted with the land division. In order to move the envelopes we would have to apply to amend the coastal permit, land division permit, and precise development plan. This necessitates numerous studies, approvals from a variety of different governmental agencies, and a hearing with the commission where the public would comment on your project. I was told the cost could range from $4,000 to over $30,000 just in permitting costs (not factoring the studies and reports from 3rd-party consultants).

The problem with working with the Planning Department is that they never seem to give you a definitive answer until you submit a formal application. Even after paying for another general consult meeting, it was not clear how the process would work, nor how likely it was the county would grant us a waiver.  Our planner suggested that we submit a complete application for building permits on the proposed building envelopes – even before they had been approved.  The full application process involves a laundry list of studies and documentation to prepare:

1. Site plan
2. Grading plan
3. Drainage plan
4. Utilities plan
5. Septic system plan
6. Development envelopes
7. Staking plan
8. Project information
9. Floor plans
10. Building elevations
11. Building cross sections
12. Materials, colors, and details
13. Landscape plan
14. Vegetation management plan
15. Preliminary title report
16. Operational characteristics
17. Evidence of water supply

The level of detail required to submit a complete application would require us to complete the Schematic Design process with Blu Homes. Blu warned us that if our application was not approved for the new location, we would have to restart the design phase and pay an additional $23,000+ for new plans. I've never been able to grasp why it takes so much work to take the same house and move it roughly 100 feet, but Blu insists that's the case. Seems like that defeats the value of a prefabricated design if so much custom work is involved in creating the schematic designs. Again, what do I know?

So our current plan is to do what's called a pre-application. This process involves submitting a proposal to all the departments and organizations who would ordinarily review your full application to get comments. The purpose is to get some initial feedback before you submit the complete permit application. As with all reviews of this nature, the applicant pays for each reviewer's time. In this case, the pre-application process requires a $3,700 deposit. I'm not clear how much of this effort and cost (if any) can be applied to the full application process, but at least we risk less money and time before finding out the likelihood of approval.

Making the Case

We have begun the process by calling a local biologist to survey the species of plants and animals, comparing both locations and determining the risk of ecological impact. As expected, we determined that the existing location poses a greater risk to sensitive species than the proposed location does. That's good news!

Next step is to get a follow-up geological analysis done to check the quality of the soils between the two locations. This is done to evaluate drainage qualities, the seismic stability, and determine foundation designs.

Assuming no problems surface in that process, we can move forward with the design on the new location. We will eventually have to bring back our septic system engineer and arborist to evaluate the new location, but I don't anticipate any big risks in those areas.  We will also be working with our neighbors to make sure we have their full support for the move. We want to eliminate any reason for the county to reject our proposal.

Project update

Yes, it’s been seven months since my last post. Thanks go out to Brandon who reminded me that there are people (at least one person, at least) who would like to know what’s been going on with our cliffhanger of a project. So I'll be posting some updates over the course of the next few days and weeks...

Design Changes

Since our last update we closed escrow and then scaled our project back to fit our more realistic budget. We removed the two secondary structures which brought down the cost by about $350,000 and the total living space to about 3,100 square feet. I think a project of this scale will also be better-received by the community.

Hydrant Redux

I noted in the last installment that our neighbor was contemplating selling her land, which put our plan to share the costs of the new fire hydrant in jeopardy. Ultimately, she decided to sell her parcel which left us on our own to figure out what to do about the cost of the hydrant. We deferred any work on this front since we didn't want to have to ask to be reimbursed from the new owners once her land sold. Surprisingly she found a buyer almost immediately without even listing it on the MLS. In a turn of good fortune, the new owners seem really great and quite interested in splitting the hydrant and other joint utility setup costs.

I’ve since reached back out to both the Fire Marshal and the West Marin Water District to discuss the design of the hydrant extension. As I noted earlier, the Fire Marshal dictates how far away the hydrant can be and the Water District’s engineers design the system and determine how to connect to the existing main. Among the things I've learned about working with these agencies is that it takes a collective 5 voicemails and 3 emails for the Fire Marshal to return a call, and that certain codes are more flexible than they initially sound as long as you are reasonable and do not issue demands.

For the extension of the hydrant the Water District required $2,800 in advance and I assume there will be additional payments due over the course of their design work of the system. We had to hire a surveyor to document the terrain that would be in the vicinity of the new line. We are currently waiting for this survey work to be completed before the design plans can be finalized.

Once the design is complete, the Water District will provide a work estimate if they were to manage the project (this is where the $150/linear foot figure came from, mind you).  I learned that even if I was to hire an independent contractor to do the work, I would still have to pay the Water District a surety bond in the amount of their estimate just in case your contractor is unable to complete the project (I guess that ensures that the work is completed one way or the other). You have one year to complete the work and even afterwards they keep part of the bond to ensure no maintenance is required.

Seems a little over-cautious to me, but what do I know?

Coming down to the wire

Into overtime

By this point in the escrow process we should have released all of our contingencies and be a week away from closing. Unfortunately, there are still some large unknowns that we needed to resolve before continuing with the sale and so we have asked the seller for an extension.

Unlike buying an existing home, the contingency period for raw land works a little differently.  Instead of inspecting the foundation, roof, plumbing and wiring of a house, we spent our time understanding the county's requirements we would have to meet in order to build what we want on the property.

Fortunately, the land owner has made some significant improvements to the land when he subdivided it back in 1997, including running water lines and electrical conduits directly to the building envelopes. Unfortunately, since doing this the building requirements have changed in Marin County.  The Marin County Fire Department no longer allows water storage tanks to be used for fire suppression, but now requires that all parcels connected to municipal water supply to be within 350 feet of a fire hydrant capable of discharging 500 gallons-per-minute.

When we originally heard about this requirement I made some worst-case-scenario estimations for how much this would cost and factored that info our offer.  As it turns out, I was off by a factor of 10! The North Marin Water District quoted me $150/linear foot in construction costs for extending the existing hydrant. I used Google Maps Pro to do a rough measurement from the parcel to the existing water main and calculated the extension would have to travel 1,500-1,900 feet.

You do the math...

Does that come with the premium gold plating?

Going "Dutch"

Fortunately, we had already spoken with the neighbor who, herself, is in the process of designing a home to be built on the adjoining parcel. Since she is facing the same building requirements as we are, she was quite interested to find someone to share the costs of the hydrant and the extra electrical pole that would have to be installed.  However, even splitting the cost would be far more than we were prepared to pay, so we had to find another option.

I spoke with the Marin's Fire Marshal who is in charge of reviewing and approving all new development proposals for the fire department. I was hoping he would understand our situation and be able to suggest some less expensive alternatives. I found out that, as is the case with many officials who enforce building regulations, they are hesitant to suggest solutions and would rather react to your proposals instead.

Next I turned to other contractors for competitive bids.  Many contractors were not interested or able to do the work, but I did find one who gave me a much lower estimate than that of the North Marin Water District. Excitedly, I wrote to the neighbor to tell her of the good news.

Her response was completely unexpected and disappointing. After four years of working with her architect and the county to build her home, she was now considering abandoning her plans and selling the property. Not only might we lose a terrific neighbor, who we genuinely like and were looking forward to getting to know better, but we would also lose a partner in the shared cost of the hydrant.



One more wrinkle

To make matters more complicated, Blu Homes is in the process of updating many of their home designs. When this happens they discontinue the previous models. One of the reasons we became less interested in the Sidebreeze model was between 2013 and 2014 the design was changed to make it more affordable, but it also lost some character in the process.

While we do like many of the changes Blu made to the Breezehouse, as you might remember we recently added a second unit to the plan as an art studio. The Origin comes in three sizes: 461, 682, and 904 square feet, respectively. Since Marin has a 750 square foot limit on the size of a second unit, we are limited to the medium-sized model. Unfortunately, at the end of September Blu is retiring these designs; making them somewhat smaller and removing the kitchenette. This means that we need to lock in the design within the next week or will have to change our plans.

Old Origin design

New Origin design

We don't want to commit to the design until we own the land. We don't want to own the land until we know we won't get stuck with the total cost of the new hydrant. And now we no longer have a neighbor who is willing to share that cost with us.

These are the kind of issues people apparently face when developing vacant land.


The dramatic conclusion...

So what will happen next? Well, we aren't sure.

We are hoping the neighbor will return to her original plans and work with us on the shared utility costs. If she does still plan on selling, we would hope she decides to install the hydrant in the hopes she could recoup the costs in the sale. We will likely have to wait a few months to get her decision as she is out of the country until November.

In the case that neither of these scenarios happen, we will have to work out a deal with the seller or reconsider the sale. I'm sure it's not what he wants to hear, but I hope he understands since if we do complete the transaction he would be our neighbor and we rather like him.

I'm sure the next few weeks will be interesting.

Meeting our architect

Yesterday Lena and I took off from work and went up to the property to meet with Kevin, the architect from Blu Homes, to discuss what our project might look like. This meeting marks the beginning of Blu's Concept phase which includes a design consultation, conceptual plans, and a high-level project estimate and timeline.  The first step, however, was to select one of the two home models we have been considering.

Look how gender-coordinated their outfits are!

So, pretty quickly we settled on the Breezehouse because we think having slightly larger bedrooms all on one floor will suit us better now and in the future.  As much as we originally loved the Sidebreeze, the 2015 model was a step in a blander direction, and that made our decision a little easier.  The modifications we would have to make in order to fit within the county's height limitation would have vacuumed-off yet another interesting architectural element and also cost more to customize.

2015 Breezehouse... check!

Blu charges a premium for the design phase if you stray from their standard options because they have to spend time customizing the design to your requests.  The cost of the standard track of the design phase is $5,000 + consultant fees and it is estimated to take 6 or more weeks to complete.  If you find yourself on the premium track you will pay at least $13,000 more and it will take at least twice as long.

Similar to buying a car, the new Breezehouse has a number of standard options from which to choose including, floor plan layouts, window/door packages, appliance trim lines, and interior/exterior finishes. We are hoping to stay on the standard track by selecting from the menu of standard options. However, because all projects in Marin County are subject to "Design Review," we might be forced onto the premium track. This is because Blu may be required to prepare extra documentation for the county's permuting process.

And just to further complicate the matter, we are also planning a smaller building as an art studio on the second building envelope.  This will likely be a combination of a 37-foot (682 square foot) Origin Blu Home and a site-built garage. Ideally, we would be able to build both of these at the same time to avoid having to go through permitting twice, but the cost of the project may determine what we are able to do when.

Special thanks to Meredith (our Blu sales consultant) and Stephen (our faithful agent) for attending this meeting and helping us make some quick decisions!

Sidebreeze in Healdsburg and a trip to the beach

Sidebreeze, Revisited

On Sunday the family and I drove up to Healdsburg, CA where Blu Homes was having an open house for their newest prefab project, a Sidebreeze, on the edge of Healdsburg Ridge Open Space Reserve. It sits conveniently right next to two other Blu homes: a Breezehouse and a Balance – each were created for a real estate developer and then resold.

The Sidebreeze with garage and custom addition

Aside from being located in a subdivision, which from inside the house it's hard to tell, they did a fantastic job with this house. The finish was superior to any of the other homes that Blu has made available for public tours and there were many customizations that this customer had added that really gave us some interesting perspectives on what can be done with their base designs.

For those familiar with the Sidebreeze layouts, this is a 2013 model which still came with the cantilevered master balcony.  Blu Homes no longer has this feature which was a disappointment for us, but apparently removing it adds a few square feet to the interior space and brings the house cost down somewhat as well.

The rear of this Sidebreeze had a nice patio and water fountain

There is still a 4-foot cantilever in the front, however (or back for this home since the layout was flipped).  This is nice because it adds some more dynamic lines to what would otherwise be a very rectangular profile. Apparently the changes also allow the 2nd-storey module to be transported on a single truck instead of two as was required of the 2013 model, which, again brings the cost down a bit.

Inside, the kitchen has all premium appliances including: Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Electrolux. The other fixtures, cabinetry, and countertops were high-quality as well which made for a very elegant space.

An attractive and functional kitchen for the Sidebreeze

The living and dining area is my personal favorite with the high ceilings and "breezespace," created by wall-to-wall windows on either end of the room.  Unsurprisingly, (this is Sonoma County after all) the weather was perfect and the gentle breeze flowing through the house was just as advertised.

The Sidebreeze's "breezespace"

From the day this model was introduced, I was pretty sure I would love the Sidebreeze because of the smaller footprint and beautiful flow between the rooms, and my first time walking through the house made me fall in love with the two-level design all over again.  The tasteful staging and dreamy surroundings didn't hurt either. 

It felt very warm and inviting for a modern home. It has a nice separation between the public and private areas of the house since they are separated on different floors, and the open views from one space to another make the home feel far larger than it's 2,600 square feet (not including the custom space).

Look at this – stairs in a prefab house! How novel!

Going upstairs, the bedrooms are smallish but not too small.  The master bedroom is a nice size and had a very nice master bathroom to match. The 2013 model had the second upstairs bathroom down the hall from the two bedrooms that would be using it which might be a little inconvenient. In the 2014 model the architects at Blu changed the layout so that the bathroom is now located between the two bedrooms which I find a little nicer even with the "jack-and-jill" doors.

One of the Sidebreeze's bedrooms

As I mentioned, this house also came with a lot of extra customizations.  The owner added a one-bedroom, bathroom and mini-kitchen over a garage with a custom connector to the main house.  This in-law studio apartment fit with the prefab part of the house seamlessly.  

Oh, and by the way in case you're curious, this house is also for sale... $2.75 million.

I do have to deduct some points from Blu Homes, however, for neglecting the free food and beverages for this open house.  For past tours we were fed by complimentary food trucks and that was a very sweet perk.  It's just not the same experience without the crème brûlée and crepes.

Lena and Meredith both agree that crepes would have been nice

If you read my previous post, you will know that we recently verified with our county planner that 25 feet was the height limit and that there was no chance in going over. Since the Sidebreeze is 26 feet not including the foundation we quickly came to the realization that we were going to have to pick a different model or go with a custom stick-built home.

Well we discovered two interesting things today.  The first is that it is possible to alter the height of the Sidebreeze.  That little elevated part of the 2nd-storey module, we learned today is called the "cricket," can just be removed.  This might lower the height close to the 25-foot threshold as mandated by the county.

That part comes off?

Another interesting tidbit we heard is that another Blu customer is currently building a Sidebreeze in Mill Valley – also located in Marin County.  How did they get around the height limitation, you ask?  Well, we are finding out.  Perhaps we are just special.

The Beach

Okay, so after that we needed a break. We drove out to our new favorite and less populated Point Reyes destination, Limontour Beach. Apparently, there are 12 beaches in Point Reyes National Seashore so we still have many more to explore.

General Consultation with Marin County Planning

Yesterday we had a consultation with our assigned county planner. Larry, Stephen and I spent an hour discussing what would be required of us in order to get permits from the county.  This meeting is a more in-depth discussion where the planner spends a little time familiarizing themselves with your parcel and answers your questions in greater detail than would the over-the-counter planners.

In our meeting we discovered that one of the neighbors strongly opposed the land owner's 1997 proposal to originally subdivide his land.  As a result, there will be some extra hurdles we may encounter that were written into the subdivision approval. Also we learned about a resident in the neighboring town of  Inverness who tends to "become very involved" in any new development in the area. As a result we intend on both being thorough with studying, documenting, and mitigating the potential impact to the area and reaching out to groups and individuals who might object to our proposal. In fact, Marin County Planning Department strongly recommends talking with your future neighbors and local community groups about your project.

I should stop here and mention the Planning Application Guide that Marin County publishes that helps understand the process. I'm sure most counties will have a similar guide to help residents through the planning process.

Marin County Planning Application Guide

The good news is that many of the initial studies and surveys have been done already by the land owner in the process of subdividing the land. That's one of the things that made the land so attractive to us initially.

We will have to update the Biological Survey which involves contracting a biologist to visit the site and evaluate the local plant and animal species that might be impacted by development.  In our case, we know that the property is Spotted Owl habitat, and so the Douglas fir and live oak trees are off limits. We will probably also be restricted to performing any construction outside of the owl nesting season to further minimize any impact.

Who wouldn't love a face like this?

Because the land borders a stream there is a 100-foot setback that we must preserve, but this has already been factored into the predetermined building envelopes for the parcel, and unless there are some protected species discovered living in the ravine our build-able space should be unchanged.

There are a number of studies that thankfully will not be required for this project either because they are no deemed necessary or one is already on file with the county from the previous subdivision project. They include: photometric study (evaluating the impact of any emitted light from a residence), hydrologic report (I think this relates to storm water drainage, but I'm not entirely sure), constraints map (again, not sure), photo-simulations (I believe this is just a 3D photo-realistic rendering of the project), acoustical study (an evaluation of the noise impact of construction on neighbors and wildlife), an arborist report (impact on/removal of any "substantive" trees on the property), archaeological survey (a study of the indigenous communities that may have lived on the land and potential impact to any artifacts), and an initial study (I think this is a catch-all for CEQA which evaluates any possible impact to the community and environment).

We are going to need a coastal permit because the land is in the coastal zone.  I'm not familiar with what is involved there, but I think those requirements are reflected in what the planner told us. We will also need to erect storey poles which roughly identify the roof line of your proposed house so that neighbors can pre-visualize the visual impact and make comments before the permit is approved.  This is despite the building envelope not being visible from any public roadway.

Storey poles

Our project is subject to Design Review which means there's a person or commission of people who determine that the project is attractive and located in an appropriate place on the lot. There may be additional visual renderings that are required for this part of the process.

One of the significant problems we confirmed today was the height limit.  Marin county has a strict (we learned) 25-foot height limit.  The prefab model we were considering is about 26', and so we will have to reconsider since modifying the prefab's height is probably not worth the additional cost. Our planner confirmed that variances were only granted in very rare circumstances and ours did not qualify.

Blu Homes' Sidebreeze model

Another problem is coming from the office of the Marin County Fire Marshal. He requires, among other things, a supply of water for fire suppression of 500 gallons-per-minute for 2 hours within 350 feet of the house.  This seems fairly reasonable considering the risk of wildfire in the area, but the estimate to connect a private fire hydrant to the county main (about 1,000-1,500 feet) would cost between $75,000-$150,000. Ouch!

I also learned that while there is no square footage limit on a primary residence, a secondary building is strictly limited to 750 square feet.  This might be a problem for us since we had envisioned a separate artist studio with a gallery space, storage, one bedroom, and one bathroom. It might be difficult to fit that all into 750 square feet. We may have to downsize.

While we are exploring other options for satisfying these permitting requirements we will be meeting with an architect from Blu Homes next week and discuss what design options we have for the parcel.

Blu homes factory and model home

Blu Homes' Factory

The other day we went out to Mare Island near Vallejo to visit the Blu Homes factory and general offices.   The goal of the visit was to discuss the project costs and the lending options. We met with our sales representative and the guy who facilitates relationships with the lenders with which Blu commonly works. We discussed Blu's new 2015 line of home designs and some options for lender financing a prefab home. In future posts I plan to discuss both of these in greater detail.

Blu Homes factory and offices

The Blu Homes factory is located in a former Navy shipyard where submarines, among other things, have been built in the years since World War II. The home modules are built on a production line where each module moves from station to station on large dollies. They're a little touchy about taking photos of the factory floor, so I was shooed away before I could get a photograph of the prefab modules actually being built.

The factory floor

Blu Model Home

Just the phrase, "model home" inspires images of rows of identical suburban tract homes, but Blu has taken a slightly different approach with their Mare Island model.  We visited their newly opened Breezehouse model home (they call it a "design center") which was installed on a hillside nearby with an incredible view of the San Pablo Bay.

Breezehouse living room

Breezehouse kitchen

Breezehouse entryway

The Breezehouse is the largest home that Blu Homes makes. The standard Breezehouse layout is about 3,000 square feet with 3-4 bedrooms – all on one level. As a result, this model is a little sprawling for me, but it has a nice separation of the common space from the more private bedroom space. The real selling point for both the Breezehouse and Sidebreeze is the breezespace which has optional NanaWall doors and create that indoor/outdoor feeling.

Breezehouse breezespace

Breezehouse NanaWall

Standard Breezehouse floor plan

Now that it's September, we are coming to the end of our escrow period and so we have limited time to complete our due diligence on the land.

We are well aware that there's no way to get complete assurance that our project will be approved for this lot, but we will do what we can to mitigate as much of our risk by understanding what the county will let us build and how much it will cost. We have a meeting with a Marin County planner this week, so we should get a clearer sense of what will be required of us to get through the permitting process in the coming months.