SHED STORY (saga) UPDATE: May 5, 2016

I will get this translated to Spanish as soon as I’m able First, enormous gratitude to the many, many people who have supported me and my shed through this nightmare. Although I was told by Inspectional Services (ISD) that in the unlikely event that an appeal was filed, it would have to be by: “an aggrieved abutter with standing” (meaning direct abutter) and that it would be between that abutter and the Zoning Board, what has actually happened is very different. An appeal, I was told, would mean that a direct abutter had the money to take the Zoning Board to Court, in an attempt to dispute the decision the board (and 2 previous governing bodies) had made to grant the Zoning Variance so my original permit could be honored and the shed could stay located where it is. The Zoning Variance was approved by the ZBA on March 24, 2016, and filed on April 11, 2016. I was told that an appeal would have to be filed within the following 20 day window of time that was allowed. It would be an understatement to say that I was worried. Sunday, May 1, would have been 20 days. Since I know that legal things generally happen on week days, and I hadn’t yet imagined that someone would be so cruel as to drag it out until the last possible second, and since I was so anxious, I called Friday afternoon to check the status. I was told that there had been no appeal but to check back again on Monday. When I called on Monday, I was told “No appeal” so I wrote down the next steps in the process and made the recommended call. Calling ISD usually means hoping for a call back. Thankfully, I received a call back relatively quickly. I was informed that, although the shed is already built, and everyone at ISD has already seen photos of every construction detail, and although I had already been forced to hire an Architect to draw plans of what I’d already built (which were unnecessary with my original permit) I would need more architectural drawings. When I reminded the person on the phone that I’d already spent $1570.— (!) to draw plans, after-the-fact, so ISD could reject the long-form permit they had forced me to file because they thought my shed didn’t look like a shed, and that this was necessary so they could reject the new long-form permit application, and that this was required in order to start the “community process” to legalize the already existing building (legally constructed on the original permit) he said “…oh that’s not much.” I was very polite and thanked him for the information. I’m trying to be brief here but this is such a long and cumbersome series of errors. The back story is that the short-form permit I was issued was legal and correct according to CityofBoston.gov Official Web Site of the City of Boston, where it states: where it states that a shed is an out building under 120 square feet. I submitted the short-form requirements, got the permit on May 7, 2015, had the suggested conversations, and built to the exact specifications required. Had the building inspector come to inspect when he said he would, rather than waiting until after it was built, NONE OF THIS WOULD BE HAPPENING. It took 16 (!) calls and several emails over a couple months to have the recommended conversation with him before I started, and I DID wait to start until I had spoken with him, as had been suggested to me. The only real issue all along has been that there was a zoning (location) issue that neither ISD nor I was aware of. This came to everyone’s attention when I was forced to change my permit. I was forced to make this change because the Inspector, when he finally came, said that the “shed doesn’t look like a shed.” So, irregardless of the phone conversation I had had with both him and his supervisor, because Inspectors in this City are known and allowed to be whimsical, I had to file the Long-form permit. It was through this process that we all realized that while everyone thinks of my front yard as my back yard - because of the very odd shape of my lot - technically, the shed is in a location that needs a variance in order to be legal. We know a lot of the rest of the story. 3 different boards, 3 approvals, a lot of community support, and some outright lies by a few oppositional people who have never had a conversation with me. These few people (one in particular) have insisted that I was “going to rent the shed,” even though I’m not, and this is not legal. That I was trying to “Pull one over on the City” and was “really” trying to “force the Tiny House Movement” here, as if I would be foolish enough to try to build a Tiny House in secret but obviously visible, while also building one that is too tall (but within legal specifications for a short-form permit for a shed in Boston) and cannot easily be moved. The one that hurt the most (until now) was when one of my neighbors told me that he had “heard” that “Andrea (me) hates Latinas”. This is patently untrue. If anyone knows me, the thought of generalizing in that way, in any way actually, is so frightening and scary to me that it’s not even plausible, still… it’s truly bizarre, certainly hurtful to me - but more to our neighborhood, that tactics such as these would be used to be divisive. So here we are. On Monday morning, May 2, 2016, I’m told there was “No appeal.” Monday evening, I go check my mail and there is a big legal document there. It is a court case naming the Zoning Board AND me personally as defendants! (accused) in a court case. Stating all sorts of issues with the granted Variance. They say that they were not informed about the “community process,” although I posted 60 flyers, 2 times each, for both the initial abutters meeting, and the JP Zoning Board meeting. I also called and left 4 different phone messages and tried once in person, to speak with the owner of the building that appears to be behind the appeal. One of the women, who apparently is the most aggrieved, was spoken to, in person, by my daughter and her husband. This woman signed the petition in favor of granting the variance. This hand written petition was required of me for the JP Zoning Board. It turned out that the over 350 signatures posted on the on-line petition didn’t really count, so we had to do it in person as well. https://www.change.org/p/inspectional-services-department-boston-help-a-local-keep-a-shed-they-had-a-permit-to-build Because I was previously unaware that on-line didn’t count , this hand-written, door-to-door petition was completed at the last minute and I neglected to make a copy of it before handing it in at the JP Zoning meeting. THIS PETITION SOMEHOW DISAPPEARED after being handed in. The Chairman says he doesn’t have it. I’m trying not to wonder about this too much because it breaks my heart. The Court papers say that my shed devalues their property. That the woman has to look out at “roof”. That their garden apartment is “now un-rentable” because there is no sun. This is amazing because the smaller shed that was there before I built this bigger one was in the exact same location. There is NEVER sun coming in those windows. That side of their building, as well as my entire yard, is shaded because of the height of their building in proximity to the sun. They say that their insurance has gone up. This one is fascinating. Every Winter, several times, an avalanche of snow falls off of the roof of that building into my yard. I have to be very careful that neither my dog nor my grandchildren are out there when it happens, because it is dangerous. When that building was updated, I made friends with - and picked up after - the workman doing the renovation because their job was impossible without putting their ladders in my yard. This was never an issue for me because I felt like I lived in a CITY NEIGHBORHOOD where cooperation was necessary and welcomed. But if their insurance is going up, does it now mean that the insurance company is worried that I might make a claim if their snow damages my shed? Were they never worried about people? What else could it be? And the worst part of this, to me, is that there has never been a conversation. I was never asked, as a person, if I could maybe shorten the height of the shed, or perhaps move it in the yard somehow. Or do something. Instead, they took it to Court. To a legal system that discourages real conversation and interaction between real caring people. The woman who apparently is the most aggrieved, the same one who spoke with my daughter and SIGNED IN FAVOR OF THE VARIANCE, is someone I thought was a good acquaintance. I was one of the emergency numbers for a relative of hers who lives far away. So I ask you, the dear people who have taken the time to read through this long missive. What do I do? I cannot afford to hire a Lawyer. I do not believe that court is a way to fix anything. Not to mention that I’m terrified of court and our legal system. As a person who has lived through 3 separate incidents of violent rape in my life, I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which is the primary reason that if I had known there was as issue, I never would have chosen to go through any of this. It’s just too stressful and has hurt me very badly. Had I known that a long-form permit and a zoning variance were necessary, I simply wouldn’t have built the shed at all. I know what I am able to manage and still keep my life going. I work counseling other people who live with trauma. I am a single mother, a grandmother, an artist, an Airbnb Host (ONLY in my house where I live, to help ends meet) and I am known as an anti-sexual violence activist and public speaker. There is a documentary being made about me. These things, and the relatively small life I’ve built so I can manage my own PTSD make sense to me. But this? Getting called into Court, AFTER going through this whole horrid process? Because people chose to never try to speak with me and see what we could work out? This is excruciating. And egregious. I do not want to live in a place where people feel like I’ve done something wrong. I do not know how to make it right when the very people who feel aggrieved by my shed, won’t just talk with me so we can figure it out, while ISD, the Building Inspector, and anyone else involved in the original “mistake” do nothing to help. So do I try to sell it? Donate it? Have a big gathering of all you wonderful supporters and neighbors, while we eat, drink, cry, hopefully laugh a little, and demolish it? Or do I go to court, myself (I simply cannot afford a Lawyer) and try to fight it? Can you help me figure this out? I simply don’t know the right thing to do. Please let me know your thoughts. Please. Thank you. Andrea Bredbeck bredbeck@mac.com 617.909.0874