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We are planning to buy a house in Bedford, MA. To meet our requirement, we will need to do an extension
Problems:
There are conservation land behind the house.
The front of house is within 100 feet boundary of conservation land.
The back of the house almost touches the 50 feet boundary of conservation land
This means, any extension need to be done between 50 ft and 25 ft boundary
The town law says no construction within 100 ft (wonder how this house was built !!)
I met a town official and she said, I Will need to file a special application.
Does anyone have experience in such application process and how likely it is to be approved.
The house was most likely either built before those bylaws were written or a special permit was given. I worked with a private school near Bedford which got a permit approved to build within the 100 foot buffer (50-100ft) and that process took several years.
If you have not already done so, I would go to the Bedford town hall and try to pull the file for that property and find out about any special permits given to any owners of that property. I would be extra careful about building close to any conservation land that abuts the Concord River, especially if you discover a special permit that allowed building over or near wetlands. I would also look up your property on the new FEMA maps. Those properties near the bike path are fairly low lying.
If you're thinking of building in the buffer zone that means you're going to have to go before the conservation commission. It's pretty much a crap shoot whether or not they will approve your request although I would tell you they probably say "no" more often than they say "yes." Personally, I would not buy a property knowing that I wanted to put an addition on it if it meant I had to go before ConCom. There's just too much risk involved that you will not be able to do what you want.
Find something else to buy, unless you have lots of time and money.
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