From the Forum – What can I do about my neighbor’s illegal pop-back??

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What can I do about my neighbor’s illegal pop-back??

“My next door neighbors just sold their house (a rowhouse in an R4 zone, no historic district) to a developer who plans to do a complete renovation. He told me that he plans to build up the rear of the house. They haven’t closed but the deal is going through this week, supposedly.

Here’s the thing – there are two illegal one-story additions on the back of the house that already violate the maximum 60% occupancy and the 20′ rear offset restrictions in the R4 zone. One is an “enclosed porch” that is really an added room, and jutting further out from that is another open porch with a roof. Both are on a foundation the old owner added. Now the developer wants to bring the height of these additions up to the full height of the house and add it to the square footage.

The illegal additions (which were put in years ago) are bad enough but making them 3 stories tall will significantly air and light in my backyard. My questions – can they actually do this? And what kind of recourse do I have?

Thanks for the advice.”

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