Not much news, but news
I have been wanting to give an update on the church's plans to purchase the house next door, but there always seemed to be a detail or two that were pending, which I hoped to have an answer for. We have some answers, but the result is: still pending.
In short, just as we suspected might be the case, the existing construction we want to purchase was never approved by city planning. When we were finally able to consult the documents on file at city hall, we found that the existing approval relates to the old "central core"...basement + two floors...and all the surrounding add-ons were never approved. To what extent approval was sought, we are not sure, but there was a request for adding on to the property that was denied by City Hall in 2004. The owners probably went ahead, anyway.
This is not the fault of the current owner, who bought the property in these conditions, and legally, he has the right to sell the property. The issue facing the church is whether to purchase the property under these conditions.
José Carlos, our church member and architect, spoke with the head of the legal department of City Hall on Friday and explained the situation. Result: 1) The existing construction cannot be approved under the current zoning plan, as it exceeds the limits allowed for occupation of the lot; 2) There is a draft law under consideration to allow owners of buildings constructed before the current zoning plan went into effect to apply for exemption and have their properties legalized. But this law would not go into effect for another year or two, according to the head of the legal department...depending on the make-up of the city council. (In local elections yesterday, the party that has controlled city hall lost for the first time in 35 years. Of course, God is supreme even over city governments, so we await to see what effect this will have, in practical terms); and 3) We have been advised to send a letter to the city planning commission to say we are interested in buying the property and ask whether it is even feasible to get the use permit of the property changed from residential to one that allows for our various church needs and ministries.
We now have to compose the letter, wait on an answer, then decide whether to proceed or not. I still believe that we will eventually have the property, just not as soon as we had hoped. If it's any consolation, we went through similar bureaucratic hassles when we bought our house in 1977 and again when we bought the current church property back in the late 80's. If there were never any storms at sea, we'd never get to hear the Lord order the winds and waves to be still.
In short, just as we suspected might be the case, the existing construction we want to purchase was never approved by city planning. When we were finally able to consult the documents on file at city hall, we found that the existing approval relates to the old "central core"...basement + two floors...and all the surrounding add-ons were never approved. To what extent approval was sought, we are not sure, but there was a request for adding on to the property that was denied by City Hall in 2004. The owners probably went ahead, anyway.
This is not the fault of the current owner, who bought the property in these conditions, and legally, he has the right to sell the property. The issue facing the church is whether to purchase the property under these conditions.
José Carlos, our church member and architect, spoke with the head of the legal department of City Hall on Friday and explained the situation. Result: 1) The existing construction cannot be approved under the current zoning plan, as it exceeds the limits allowed for occupation of the lot; 2) There is a draft law under consideration to allow owners of buildings constructed before the current zoning plan went into effect to apply for exemption and have their properties legalized. But this law would not go into effect for another year or two, according to the head of the legal department...depending on the make-up of the city council. (In local elections yesterday, the party that has controlled city hall lost for the first time in 35 years. Of course, God is supreme even over city governments, so we await to see what effect this will have, in practical terms); and 3) We have been advised to send a letter to the city planning commission to say we are interested in buying the property and ask whether it is even feasible to get the use permit of the property changed from residential to one that allows for our various church needs and ministries.
We now have to compose the letter, wait on an answer, then decide whether to proceed or not. I still believe that we will eventually have the property, just not as soon as we had hoped. If it's any consolation, we went through similar bureaucratic hassles when we bought our house in 1977 and again when we bought the current church property back in the late 80's. If there were never any storms at sea, we'd never get to hear the Lord order the winds and waves to be still.
posted by EP | 11:24 AM | Permalink
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