bought duplex and in permitting found out the lot zoned for SFH

[Justin Pudenz]

I bought a duplex which is a 2BDR /1 Bath per side on the duplex, the 2 bedrooms and bathroom are upstairs.  The duplex was built in 1948, so it is older but has good bones and in great location.  I initially was just going to update the bathroom and kitchen and submitted plans accordingly.  But after some thought I would like to add square footage, so I submitted plans to the city to add half bathroom on the 1st floor along with adding on a master bedroom and bathroom on addition to back of the building.  The lot sits with to the North are 5 lots of duplexes and quadplexes on the street and to the South is next to a single family home.  The city just sent back our plans with their comments, and they are stating that the lot is zoned for a single family home and not a duplex.  The city is saying we need to go before a committee to plead our case to have the lot rezoned for multifamily which could take months.  For 8 months now the duplex has sat vacant as waiting on permit.  The duplex was built it 1948 and the city zoned the lot in 1983 as a single family home, so the zoning was done well after the duplex was built.   Does anyone have any recommendations on how to get this rezoned as multifamily lot?  Does this type of scenario get covered under Title Insurance for additional expenses incurred on delays?  

[Bob Ritner]

I had a similar issue, but not in that jurisdiction. My duplex was built in 1952 and I was able to find a copy of the original permit in the city's permit records that showed it was originally permitted as a duplex. Regardless of the later single family zoning you would be a legal non-conforming use if you can locate the original permit in city records (if it was in city limits then) or at the county. Unfortunately, not all jurisdictions kept great records back then, but you would not need to re-zone if you can find this.