Alright, lawyerguys:
Trying to build a home and getting this permit is turning into a PITA. I'll give a general timeline here with a summary below as I'd like to know how extensive this could end up being.
1.) Original Permit Submittal Date 6/23/14
2.) Comments from city sent to Engineer 7/9/14 (incorrectly instead of the contractor)
3.) Meeting with city to discuss revisions 7/23/14
4.) Revisions sent to city 7/25/14
5.) Phone call and email from contractor to city to request acknowledgement of receipt and initial feedback 8/1/14
6.) Phone call request update from contractor to city 8/5/14 - no response
7.) Email requesting updated from contractor to city 8/7/14 - no response
8.) Phone call requesting update from contractor to city 8/8/14- Spoke with city who indicated that he would have comments in "a day or two"
9.) Phone call requesting update from contractor to city 8/13/14 - no response
10.) Call from my lawyer to his friend who is the municipal judge for this city to give a "nudge" 8/14/14
11.) Phone call from city to contractor requesting materials be dropped off 8/18/14. Response in a couple days
12.) Email response from city to structural engineer (again, incorrectly) with "new comments" 8/21/14
So the entire plans were submitted back in June. They had a total of 5 comments, 3 of which were completely incorrect (i.e., the height of the house is above the limit when in fact it was not, not enough smoke alarms which there were). The main comment had to do with the back of the home exceeding total # of stories that could be visible. Building director drew out a sketch of a retaining wall that would be acceptable. My contractor goes back to engineer and architect, gets the plan resubmitted 2 days later (7/25 above). Yesterday, they finally responded (to the incorrect person again) and once again mentioned the height of the house (incorrectly), now that the building lines and setbacks are wrong because it's listed as the wrong zone (again, incorrect, which was pointed out and acknowledged) and not really any response to the retaining wall issue. Said he will try to meet with the architectural review board and get back in a couple days.
This dept is completely incompetent. My attorney is familiar with this dept and knows how they operate. He has requested to sit down and meet with them to get their attention and get things moving. However, during the last phone call to my contractor, the building inspector stated that "the interference with this project is not helping at all". He's concerned that, if we push too hard too early, they could make this incredibly difficult or may not grant a permit at all.
However, so far, their comments have either been completely wrong (height exceeded when it doesn't, wrong zone when it's not, and a few others) or have been addressed and submitted based on their own recommendations. If I have a sit down meeting with them and my attorney and they decide to make this difficult, what am I potentially looking at here in terms of time and money to get the permit taken care of? Apparently their normal turnaround time is 30-45 days and we are well past that as we aren't really any further than we were the first day we submitted the plans. As the current place we are building has a home that we need to demo, we still need to get a demo permit once this is done (another 3 weeks) and I'm paying a monthly mortgage on a property while waiting for them to push this through.
I'll hang up and listen.