no room for new septic system... how to deal with town of Huntington (Hope: how much)

[superfly10]

So, moved into our house about a year and a half ago, it's a small beach cottage in Huntington on a small lot. Last fall we had our septic pumped because we had a little backup. The company that did it was good, reasonable and even did a video inspection of the septic free of charge. What was revealed was that the septic is an old, block pool (probably original to the house). It's also buried beneath a stacked block staircase to the main entry to the house (on the side of the house).

Pool seems in ok shape, but obviously, I'm not comfortable with the block pool.
So, we plan on installing a new septic at some point.

Moving the decision up a little - the block stair case is having problems (not related to the pool, it simply wasn't stacked properly (seams line up instead of being staggered) so they are starting to shift and pull apart. Obviously, If I'm going to demo the staircase to fix it... that would be the time to empty and fill the block pool under it and install the new one.

Here's the rub. The existing pool violates setback, it's too close to the house and too close to the property line on the side, so we'd need to move the septic to the front.

Problem number two - according to the cesspool company, there is room in the front yard for the actual septic tank, but likely not the 3 stacked rings the town will demand for overflow. It's really tight. Not sure what to do. I guess if we had to, we could dig up the driveway and put it there, but that's not what I want to do.

So, here's the question... has anybody had success dealing with the town of Huntington on an issue like this? Going with a smaller system if there's no room for a bigger one? Do I need a variance? AM I out of luck and should wait until I can afford to dig up the driveway?

I just want to avoid any pitfalls with dealing with the town, but at the same time, we will do this legally and properly. Not looking to have a pirate come in and drop a new tank in the middle of the night or anything.

thanks!

[7CatMom]

Sorry, I don't have any info for you, but we have a cesspool problem in Huntington also. We've been in the house 28 years, have to pump it out twice a year. Probably 10-12 years ago our pumping company said we may have to consider putting in a new system.
Problem is our cesspool is in the backyard, original 1955, I'm sure it's block also. We've been told Huntington won't replace backyard pools, you have to put it in the front. Since our property slants down to the back, that means a pool in the front will have to be dug a lot deeper than usual. All piping would have to be redone as well.
Don't know how much footage is needed between the house and the street for this - our yard isn't all that big.

I'll be watching this post with interest. Hopefully, someone will have some answers.

[Crookhaven]

Arent underground setbacks different?