This is a learning lesson! Learning about zones, statutes, land plan usage, and so much more. To the point your head feels like it might explode from all the information. And how ambiguous all of the wording is.
I will say that most of the people I have talked to along this journey have been supportive in helping me navigate. Although it's great, it is really frustrating as well. I would guess that many people have no clue how to navigate through all the laws, etc. to find the parts that apply to them. And there isn't much help from the powers that be to help you with that navigation.
Fun fact when you have a business like Simply Quimby it is really hard to find the type of business it falls under. Because we are a few different ones wrapped up. We offer classes, events, retail shopping, services etc. And guess what there isn't an all on one. Ha! So we need an event permit for the classes, vendors, and anything that would take place outside of the walls of the barn. And we need a permit for people to enter the barn to shop, paint or do anything inside the barn in a retail type capacity. And because the barn is bigger than the required square footage we need to get a variance. Also because we have the Quonset Hut for the ceramic molds to be stored in, the variance is also required for that. Don't forget we want to open the coop to crafting so the variance also applies to that.
I have found that having a tent outside with the events is ok but having people come into a safe secure building is not, if it is bigger than the allowed square footage. Silly. But it's the laws and we need to figure out how to have the law to be adapted to what we want to do. Next up is to have a structural engineer come and say our barn is in fact safe for the public. Then make sure that we are following all of the laws for a commercial building. I am working on that now.
Good news is that the Township, wonderful gentleman with a plethora of knowledge, said they will recommend that Simply Quimby be able to do the things requested. Woo hoo! First victory in this battle. And I say battle, because I feel like that is what this is. I am all about laws, regulations and what not. Because they are in place to keep people safe, make sure we don't have unwanted things within the community. It is just really frustrating.
We have been here before. In the barn, on the property, with no complaints. And according to the county it is really hard to get a variance to increase to the extent we have to increase to. "All work and work related items shall be kept within an enclosed structure" "building shall be no larger than 2000 square feet"
Those sentences are the hang up. We can't fit all of the ceramic molds into the barn with the retail. It just isn't possible. And the barn is already bigger than what is required.
So the next step in this process is the event permit. We go before the board on April 25th at 6:30pm if you would like to join us. It is public and I will be stating facts as to why we should be allowed to have events here.
For now I need to plan to be creative with how this might look going forward. So onward we shall go!
