Permitting Headaches
As some of you may know, Mérida recently held local elections. After over 21 years, the ruling party PAN was thrown out of office.
With this change in government came a massive shuffling of administrators and some changes in permitting procedures. As a result, our application for a building permit, previously little more than a rubber stamp, has been rejected based on building code violations in our proposal.
The major sticking point is the placement of our pool at one meter from the boundary wall. City code mandates that all pools must be situated at least two meters from a property’s boundary line.
Prior to the recent elections, the city allowed exceptions to this rule if a structural engineer was able to sign off on your drawings and guarantee no damage to your neighbor’s property during construction. Not any more! Thank goodness our property is wide enough to retain the pool (albiet moved) with the now strictly enforced rule.
With some adjustments, we’ve come up with a reasonable solution. With this revision made (as well as a few others), we are ready to resubmit. Fingers crossed we get the green light this time.
