I have a cape in Bergen county and I want to basically expand the whole second floor and make it into more of a colonial type house. I went to the town and I will need a variance in order to build. My house is 5 feet to close to the road and also 4.5 feet to close to my neighbor. With my addition I am not expanding the footprint of the house. Everything is just being built on top of my current footprint. I do want to add a garage but that is on the other side of the house where I have more than enough room than what the town requires. The question I have is has anyone ever gone before the town to try and get approved for it? What type of questions do they ask you, what should I be saying and should I get a lawyer to represent me. I have no idea on how this thing works and is it hard to get approvedIn my town the avg sft/house goes from 1800-10,000+ sft with most of the houses in the 5000sft+ range. Mine would be going from 2000sft to approx. 3300 sft. Once done my house would be more in line with the rest of the town. Any advice/thoughts would be great.