Quick Question

[kschmidt]

Hi Everyone.  I just have a quick question since the town offices are closed for the weekend.  Does anyone know if zoning requirements in Fairfax dictate that a bedroom must have a closet to be considered a bedroom?  If a bedroom does not have a closet is it considered an office or den?  Thanks for your help.

[Henry]

Probably Skip Taylor will have to answer this, but I was told that if a room does not have a closet, it is not considered a bedroom.

[slpott]

That is what I have been told too. We should take all our doors off and see if it helps with taxes. hee hee

[Mike Raburn]

NOT knowing local codes or regs in Fairfax or Vermont,

I would say a room used as a BEDROOM must have a window for egress.

What does a closet have to do life safety issues?

[mirjo]

I don't know anything about the the laws specifically, but I do know that the new condos across from Minors on Rte 104 have three rooms upstairs--one w/o a closet and are sold as two bedrooms.

[Mike Raburn]

When ANY local authority tells you that you need closets...... That is USSR.
Oh wait, we are headed that way................

That is like telling you to put in a certain grade of tile or carpet.

I hope  kschmidt is mis-informed !!!!!!! Please say it is so.

[slpott]

For each bedroom you pay more taxrs. That is why people never put one on when it is built and add it later. The same thing was done with my house. It has been that way for a long time and the same in Virginia. Although, I never heard anyone complain about their taxes the whold 18 years I lived there. Big Difference.

[Henry]

I took some time and sat down with Skip down at the Town Office.  He gave me some interesting information about this which makes sense.  Just because a room has a closet in it, it doesn't make it a bedroom.  Skip says, the real test is what is the room primarily being used for.

He also told me that it doesn't make any difference in the village how many bedrooms you have, but you get outside the village and the number of bedrooms you can have is determined by what your septic system is designed for.  He showed me an example of a development in town that has all of its septic systems designed for a 4-bedroom house, even though there is one 2 bedroom house being built.  He said that at a later date that that two bedroom house could conceivably be expanded to 4 bedrooms, because of the design of the septic system.

[Mike Raburn]

I SEE the logic for rooms vs occupants vs septic, but what the heck is it the local authorities business?

Is this an environmental issue they are monitoring?

The home owner pays for the septic system install AND the pumping.