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Understanding the Building Permitting Process [ A Beginners Guide ]

Great topic. Clear pictures, good audio … but not how i would have done it. IMHO it would have been nice to show sample forms, a sample list of the steps, and a flow chart or timeline.

No offense intended.
 
I think it was great as an overview, everyone's process is a little different, but this hit the high points!
 
About as good of a "nutshell" as you can get.....If you get into too specific it will only reflect the particular process in a particular place, whereas this is a nice general gist...
 
The ladder pretty much sums up the real world experience the creators of this video possess. And check out the yellow headed orange guy, he's painting the framing.

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Is this telling the truth? The endless delays getting through the Planning Dept.? Plan check took how long? Well it would have been half of that had they not lost the plans. What about those plans? Where's the red ink?
Oh and that inspector... you moved a window so you get to start over.

Since when does a meps plan review take place on residential? The review amounts to making sure there is a permit. While were on the topic of reviews, remember the Fire Dept.... ya that's right and you might want to check that Agency Referral form.

The lady says, "Every building project starts out with a vision". Alrighty then, "Every building project ends with a victim". Of course that's to one degree or another... could be a paper cut ... suicide is not unheard of.

Other than that stuff, I thought it was a pie in the sky look at what we don't do.

Oh and your voice Jeff.. I don't know how you pulled that off but you can always claim it wasn't you that did this..

Quoting e hilton:
No offense intended.
 
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PG county Maryland. Prince Georges county, east of DC. Filed a permit for interior reno of a bank branch, plus R&R part of the sidewalk to make it ada accessible. Filed 3/15 … no permit yet.

County came back and required a Site development concept plan, andva Soil conservation district exemption because of the sidewalk replacement. EoR pushed back, said less than 500 sf so not needed. County said gotta have them, so we filed. Then the county reviewed the documents and said oops, you were right, not needed. Too bad about the time you spent and the additional fees.
 
I have no complaints in this process. Twice I've walked in with plans and the simple 2 page application downloaded from town's web site, and walked out 30 to 45 minutes later with approval to proceed. Dropped check off next day and permits arrived in a week. It could have been 5 minutes if I hadn't gotten a briefing in other town developments.

You all should have it this good.
 
On the one hand it’s a good start. If nothing else, it makes clear that there’s a difference between zoning codes and building codes, and that’s one of the biggest hurdles for first-timers.

On the other hand, it’s like making a 5 minute video titled, “here’s how to communicate with the IRS for payment of taxes”. A high-level view will always be deceptively simple. It can’t be helped.
 
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I have my ways.

Jeff, if this is you on the video below, I much prefer your voice.
The other voice reminds me of those computer-generated voiceovers (no offense if that was a live person), and I associate computer-generated voiceovers with content created outside the United States, which makes me inherently distrust the reliability of that video's information about U.S.-based building permit processes.

 
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