Happy Tuesday, Reader!
The homebuilding industry can be a paradox for some. I mean - you're building a product for people to fulfill dreams and wishes, and that's a great thing.
But, often, Home Builders are using up land (taking over old farms, etc.) to build their homes. And that can be somewhat of a downer to folks who hate to see the ground give way for "McMansions" and other housing.
As a Home Builder since 1993, I've struggled with this same paradox. The industry is what put a roof over my head (and food into my belly), but I've always had a sense of guilt in the back of my mind knowing that my livelihood often meant I was taking away some beautiful parcels of this place we call Earth to feed my livelihood.
If you've ever had a small tinge of guilt yourself, you may wonder how a Home Builder can accomplish both - put a roof over your head without gobbling up more ground.
Enter Infill Building
Infill Building (or Infill Construction) is a term that refers to home building activity that occurs on existing vacant lots within older communities, towns, cities, etc.
Since the lot already exists (and is surrounded by homes that - in some instances - have been around for years), there is not a need to gobble up new ground.
And it's something that I like to do. It's fun to try to figure out how to fit a new home into an existing community.
This week, I had the opportunity to look at an infill lot that just came on the market - so - I thought it might be interesting to bring you "behind the scenes" to see how the process of investigating an infill lot for buildability works.
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An Infill Lot Plot Plan
Here, I was going "old school" by grabbing a pencil and graph paper to draw out the lot that just came on the market.
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Steps to Investigating an Infill Lot
- Since the lot existed since before the 1940's, the Seller had no plot plan. So, I got a copy of the Deed that explained the dimensions of the lot.
- Fortunately, when lots were created at that time, most were really simple rectangles. This one happened to be 60' wide x 90' deep.
- I grabbed some graph paper, my trusty pencil, and an Engineer's Scale Ruler (a special type of triangular ruler that you can use to measure out 10', 20', 30', etc. distances as simple as reading 1", 2", 3" depending on which way you flip it).
- I used my 10' scale side of that ruler and drew the rectangle to scale on my graph paper.
- Next, I had to figure out what the Building Setbacks were. To do this, I had to look up the municipality's Zoning Code/Map to see what restrictions were place on this lot (based on its location).
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I learned that the Building Setbacks were as follows:
- Front of House - Minimum 25' from front property line (BUT an unenclosed front porch could extend 10' into that front setback)
- Each Side of House - Minimum 7' from the side property lines.
- Back of House - Minimum of 20' from the rear of the property (BUT because this lot was created prior to 1943, I could actually go as close as 15').
- On my plot plan, I used that scale ruler to mark off the Building Setbacks for this specific lot. To show this on the plot plan, I used dotted lines and showed notes based on my research above.
What Did I End Up With?
To figure out the maximum size of the house's dimensions (not that I'd necessarily want to max it out), I could see that I could go with a 46' wide maximum house (60' minus 14' (two 7' side yard setbacks)).
As for depth of house, I could construct a house that is 45' deep for the main part of the house (90' deep minus 45' (25' front yard setback and 20' rear setback)). I could have 10' more of unenclosed front porch moving into that front yard setback.
And I did read one note in the Zoning Ordinance that said - because the lot was created before 1943 (and was really small) - I could have an additional 5' into the rear setback. So, I could have a 50' deep house.
There's a bit more I need to investigate to decide size of house. Namely, I need to explore things like Maximum Coverage Area, Home Pricing/Sizes in the area, etc. - but - this is a good start.
If you'd like a PDF copy of my hand-drawn plot plan to look at the dimensions, just REPLY TO THIS EMAIL and ask me for it! I'm happy to share it. Just don't make fun of my bad penmanship (or my elementary English Teacher will smirk and say "I told ya so, Brad."