Building Permit How Long Did You Wait?

[moparpollack]

My small 1000 square foot shop was supposed to be permitted in two days. Then Murphy hit, seems the original site plan for my house has my backyard as the front yard. Now after waiting a month for a complete review I will have to have a to do two word flip and wait another month to have it reviewed and permitted hopefully.

The last shop I built in Oklahoma was walk in walk out $250 permitted. This one is $1200 and two months. So am I the only one who is stuck in permit purgatory? Lets hear your permitting stories.

 

[JerseyJeep95]

I just obtained my permit for framing and electrical for my 30x40x12. It was 15 business days and $490.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[Firebrick43]

330, five minutes total. Only wanted to know square footage.

Couple of counties over it will take 3-6 month and over $6000 after you are the center attraction of thier three ring circus and jump through all their hoops

 

[kd3pc]

No permit needed where I am in Middle Tn, unless you want electric, then it is $15 and they give you a phone number to get hold of the inspector for your inspection of the electrical work, only.

In SWVA, it was bring in a one page diagram showing the site and set backs. $50 and done while I waited.

 

[James-W]

I had to go down to the building office at City Hall and ask if I could put up a garage and how big I could build it. Once I knew that I had to have detailed plans drawn up. The lumber yard where I bought the building materials have a structural engineer on hand and he did the detailed plans for free. If you buy the building materials from them the plans are free. Once I had the detailed plans I took them back to the building department and they gave me the building permit for $50. Getting the actual building permit took about 5 minutes at the most, but it took 3 days to get the detailed building plans drawn up.

 

[moparpollack]

Guess big city living has come to bite me!

My builder said it's even worse for homes. He has three homes sold waiting build waiting on the county for permits.

 

[kwschumm]

31 months and counting. Seriously. F*cking gophers and unaccountable bureaucrats.

 

[JerseyJeep95]

31 months and counting. Seriously. F*cking gophers and unaccountable bureaucrats.

31 months?! Thirty one? You sir, need a lawyer if you haven't already hired one.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[moparpollack]

31 months and counting. Seriously. F*cking gophers and unaccountable bureaucrats.

Well now I feel better but, there are so many shops like I am building in the area it makes no sense that they aren't collecting and moving on. It's not like I'm reinventing the wheel.

 

[ard]

1. I don't need permits where I live, so it was 0 Minutes

2. Walk in, walk out- $20

3. It was only 2 weeks but cost $1200

4. Mine took 31 months

5. I moved out 4 years ago and we are STILL waiting- had to pay 5000 up front.

Pick one, or make up your own. Does it make you feel better? Trying to understand the point frankly.....

Location can have a bearing, but that oddly seems a secret for many.

 

[Moosefire66]

9 months and counting... and it's just for a pergola

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[kwschumm]

31 months?! Thirty one? You sir, need a lawyer if you haven't already hired one.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Yeah. The lawyer said it would go up to the state supreme court or higher. He said we'd probably win but it would bankrupt us.

There was a story I read somewhere about this but the details are fuzzy. A guy was denied a permit for some specious reason. After spending years and tons of money pursuing it through the courts the guy finally prevailed. He went back to the county to apply for his permit and they denied it again, for the same reason. These people are simply unaccountable. It really is amazing that there haven't been major shooting incidents in county land use offices.

 

[JerseyJeep95]

Yeah. The lawyer said it would go up to the state supreme court or higher. He said we'd probably win but it would bankrupt us.

There was a story I read somewhere about this but the details are fuzzy. A guy was denied a permit for some specious reason. After spending years and tons of money pursuing it through the courts the guy finally prevailed. He went back to the county to apply for his permit and they denied it again, for the same reason. These people are simply unaccountable. It really is amazing that there haven't been major shooting incidents in county land use offices.

It sound to me like someone in your jurisdiction doesn't want garages/ hobby shops on residential property.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[KEH]

Sounds to me like in kwschumm's jurisdiction they have complete powerhungry idiots in charge. It also sounds like a good time to have a good publicity campaign to replace some elected officials. Also attend public meeting of whatever boards and elected officials are in control with a view to replacing some. At this point, what does he have to lose?

KEH

 

[kwschumm]

Sounds to me like in kwschumm's jurisdiction they have complete powerhungry idiots in charge. It also sounds like a good time to have a good publicity campaign to replace some elected officials. Also attend public meeting of whatever boards and elected officials are in control with a view to replacing some. At this point, what does he have to lose?

KEH

At the last election the two county supervisors who pushed this **** through were replaced. The problem is now more with US Fish & Wildlife. They have now permeated the land use planning office and, in fact, pay for a large portion of their budget. Replacing unaccountable bureaucrats is much more difficult than replacing them in an election.

I've had issues with the courts on another problem related to this issue. I filed a suit against the previous owner of this house for lying on his mandatory owner disclosure form. The judge's rulings are telling.

On the disclosure the owner said that NO environmental studies were done and there is no reason why building would be restricted on this property. In fact, USF&W biologists had been to the property several times to study the gophers. A public records search revealed a letter from USF&W to the owner to that effect. We had an affidavit from two biologists that stated that they had personal conversations with the owner about building restrictions in gopher land. Nonetheless the judge ignored this evidence and ruled that there was no restriction on building here. He also said there was no "defect" on the property even though a definition of defect is "a problem that reduces the value of property". By that logic termites aren't a defect either. The judges reasoning was incoherent and reading the transcripts shows a rambling and impressive feat of tortured logic.

We are appealing that ruling now in a state court.

We also challenged the property value of the 4 acres we can't use. County was increasing property tax on the land even though it was useless. I challenged it for two years and finally they reduced the land assessment by $40k. At the same time they raised the value of the house by $44k. Hmmm... If things were fair the county should have to buy the property from us at fair market pre-gopher prices, AND they should maintain it. As it is now I am required to keep it mowed so THEY can inspect for gophers. We can't even plant trees on the land since prairie gophers don't like trees. It's crazy.

Generally I am doubtful about conspiracy theories but the denial of building in this county is quite effectively a conspiracy of environmentalists.

 

[SteveCh]

It was 7 months for me.

 

[Fordman7795]

It was 7 months for me.

Same here. Applied in april, approved in november after getting hassled on every minute detail. $475 and they never even inspected it. Im doing the electrical now so F em, i aint getting a permit for that

 

[Mikeske]

For my mobile home in 1998 it was 3 weeks. For my 36 X 38 shop in 2009 about a month, cost for the permit was $390.00, for my carport and covered front porch cost for the permit was $370.00 in 2013 about 5 weeks. For the covered back deck last year was 6 weeks and cost of the permit was $420.00.

I used the same contractor for the pole building, carport/front porch and covered back deck we never had a issue with any of the plans as we gave the county all the information and engineered drawings right from the start and the county had no issues with the plans, had one neighbor that contacted the county about building without a permit and the inspector was out on the back deck project and the permit was nailed up. He took one look at the permit walked around and shot the breeze with me and the contractor, the inspector signed off on the post holes even though we had not yet called for him and said have a nice day.

 

[rburke65]

I built a 32'x56' shop and I am rural so all the township wanted to know that I wasn't building a crematorium or a Walmart.....his words not mine.....and since property lines are sometimes not well defined, I was told to do myself a favor and avoid future complications, and keep 20' away from what I think are the lit lines. Cost was $20. The county....for starters wanted a lot drawing, where my septic, well, house, outbuildings and proposed site of the new build AND required .... for starters $300 for a downspout permit! I could not get a build permit without a downspout permit. The Soil, Water and Sanitation Dept. had to come out to make sure I was not piping my downspouts into my septic tank. Septic is UP hill from shop. BUT then they wanted to know what was I going to do with the rain water I have coming off my roof?...HUH? Wanted to know where was it going o go? ...ah....."on the ground"? I have 5.4 acres! They said NO! The water had to go the the drainage ditch bythe road..up hill....or a stream, creek, pond....I had neither or I had to dig a dry well, fill with stone, pipe, overflow option......are you kidding me. Rain has been falling here since the beginning of time and now I have to contain it! WTF? The build permit was only..?..$200 which included the electrical so that wasn't bad at all compared to some of the horror stories I've heard and the were on site when the said the would be so as not to hold up progress. In addition, when the Sanitary inspector arrived we were trenching and running 4" and 6" drain pipe and had not started to dig dry well, I questioned the need and he just said most folks didn't have 5 acres and the requirement was written for city lots. He then handed me the Orange "PASS" sticker and said to run the pipe into the woods and forget about the dry well. TYJ! Pretty painless really.

 

[The FIB]

Depends on the zoning and building dept. that approves them, I have seen permits take over two years in the City of Chicago. It is not uncommon for the permits to take longer than the actual construction.

 

[pcmeiners]

When I sold a apart of my property to a contractor, part of the agreement was he was to provide all work on the property division, and any permits needed. Within a 2 weeks the property was divided, and 2 needed permits were in place regarding my house. Perhaps it pays to have a contractor pull the permits, even if he will not be doing the work.

 

[doolots]

Took 9 months to get a permit for my shop in Sw washington... Longest 9 months of my adult life!

 

[engineer2]

$65 for a permit to tear out my wooden deck. $35 permit to replace it with a patio. I complained about the absurdity of it and they said skip the $65. ******* neighbor calls when he sees tools come out, so now I just display an old permit when I do work on the place.

 

[brownbagg]

12 minutes

 

[rburke65]

Ya got to love the nibby neighbors!

 

[lakeroadster]

11 days & $412... for my 30' x 44' x 10' pole building.