cs
03-30-2005, 06:22 AM
Okay so back in Dec I start to apply for a building permit. You have to send the soil & erosion plans to the city and the building plans to the county. I take the city their plans and the county theirs. In the meantime we apply to the state for the NOI and the traffic light/DOT access plan.
As far as I know everything is to the right people. The city is suppossed to send the soil & erosion to a state guy for approval and I assume that they did that.
The county than decides that they will do the signal design. We submited the signal design and the DOT access as one package.
At this point I've done everything they have asked me. Every time I go down there they ask for one more thing and I do it with a smile on my face.
In Feb they call me and tell me that I still need to submit plans for soil & erosion, which I did in Dec. Still with a smile on my face I take them the plans.
At this time I'm told verably that they don't have a problem with us clearing and grubbing the site. So we start getting ready for that. The sub does more than what the city wanted so the city turns it over to the county and we get fined.
During this the soil & erosion comes back and needs corrections. The county inspector at that point takes over soil & erosion and we give him the corrected plans. This is a process that takes a couple of weeks with a couple of different revisions, but we handle it and get it taken care.
Meantime I find out that with the county taking over traffic signal that my access application has to be re-applied for. So I do that. It takes 3 weeks for DOT to get mark-ups back to me.
Back to soil & erosion. The ditch that has to be crossed is a state water. So plans are sent to that department for a variance. That department tells our engineer and the county inspector over the phone that a variance is not required.
Great, I'm ready to move on..
So now we have soil & erosion approved. DOT is working on getting us an acess permit, I have the state NOI, and the variance is not needed.
The county than turns the soil & erosion back over to the city. So I call the city and see what is needed before we can start work. This is where I lose my cool. They tell me I have to have the DOT acess permit and that the plans have to be sent for a variance on crossing the stream.
I'm starting to get hot unde the cooler at this point. Remembe I started this back in Dec and Mar is almost over. I question why a DOT access permit is required to start construction. DOT has to give you access and they have already given preliminary approval of the plans, just need to make a few changes and they will approve it.
I than tell them that the state said we don't need a variance for the stream, being as we are allowed a free crossing. At this point I'm almost boiling, so I have to get cooler heads in here to talk to them. What it boils down to is nobody wants to take responsbility for the state waters and they want in writing from the state that a variance is not required.
I've keep this short and sweet for you guys, there was a lot more run around that I didn't post here. Needless to say I feel like I've been getting the run around on this. We are trying to build for our customer, a rival of our customer is on the county planning commision and sometimes I feel like someone is trying to screw with us.
I've been nice with these folks since Dec. Yesterday I wasn't so nice. Today I will call and apologize and be nice again.
I've been working here 10 years. I've applied for many permits over the years. I've dealt with differnt state agencys. I'v applied for DOT in differnt states. I've dealt with injection wells and I've dealt with state approved sewers. Never have I had such a problem with getting a permit.
Thanks for letting me vent. If this don't sound like much to you, remember I've let a lot out to keep it short.
Chad
As far as I know everything is to the right people. The city is suppossed to send the soil & erosion to a state guy for approval and I assume that they did that.
The county than decides that they will do the signal design. We submited the signal design and the DOT access as one package.
At this point I've done everything they have asked me. Every time I go down there they ask for one more thing and I do it with a smile on my face.
In Feb they call me and tell me that I still need to submit plans for soil & erosion, which I did in Dec. Still with a smile on my face I take them the plans.
At this time I'm told verably that they don't have a problem with us clearing and grubbing the site. So we start getting ready for that. The sub does more than what the city wanted so the city turns it over to the county and we get fined.
During this the soil & erosion comes back and needs corrections. The county inspector at that point takes over soil & erosion and we give him the corrected plans. This is a process that takes a couple of weeks with a couple of different revisions, but we handle it and get it taken care.
Meantime I find out that with the county taking over traffic signal that my access application has to be re-applied for. So I do that. It takes 3 weeks for DOT to get mark-ups back to me.
Back to soil & erosion. The ditch that has to be crossed is a state water. So plans are sent to that department for a variance. That department tells our engineer and the county inspector over the phone that a variance is not required.
Great, I'm ready to move on..
So now we have soil & erosion approved. DOT is working on getting us an acess permit, I have the state NOI, and the variance is not needed.
The county than turns the soil & erosion back over to the city. So I call the city and see what is needed before we can start work. This is where I lose my cool. They tell me I have to have the DOT acess permit and that the plans have to be sent for a variance on crossing the stream.
I'm starting to get hot unde the cooler at this point. Remembe I started this back in Dec and Mar is almost over. I question why a DOT access permit is required to start construction. DOT has to give you access and they have already given preliminary approval of the plans, just need to make a few changes and they will approve it.
I than tell them that the state said we don't need a variance for the stream, being as we are allowed a free crossing. At this point I'm almost boiling, so I have to get cooler heads in here to talk to them. What it boils down to is nobody wants to take responsbility for the state waters and they want in writing from the state that a variance is not required.
I've keep this short and sweet for you guys, there was a lot more run around that I didn't post here. Needless to say I feel like I've been getting the run around on this. We are trying to build for our customer, a rival of our customer is on the county planning commision and sometimes I feel like someone is trying to screw with us.
I've been nice with these folks since Dec. Yesterday I wasn't so nice. Today I will call and apologize and be nice again.
I've been working here 10 years. I've applied for many permits over the years. I've dealt with differnt state agencys. I'v applied for DOT in differnt states. I've dealt with injection wells and I've dealt with state approved sewers. Never have I had such a problem with getting a permit.
Thanks for letting me vent. If this don't sound like much to you, remember I've let a lot out to keep it short.
Chad