SJBA Challenges Permit Delays

After years of frustrated reports from members regarding the excessive length of time needed to obtain building permits, the board felt it was time to put pressure on the County with some hard data.

Time required to get a building permit in San Juan County

By John Evans, Executive Director (submitted to San Juan County Council)

The San Juan Builders Association member companies, their employees and families are very concerned about the performance level of the CDPD (Community Dev elopement and Planning Department). We have surveyed the permit processing times required for single-family homes in near by counties, Skagit, Jefferson, Island, and Clallam.

I spoke personally with the directors of those departments or their assistance. The typical performance level in these adjoining counties, from receipt to issuance of a single-family home building permit, is 4 weeks. Less complicated permits such as remodels, decks and garages take less time.

The performance level in San Juan County is 16-20 weeks.

San Juan County's performance has not changed in over two years despite the fact that the number of single-family permits issued has gone down since 2005. 171 single-family residential permits were issued in 2006. Using the data from the department through October, it appears single-family residential permits issued by CDPD for 2007 will decline further to about 150.

The survey is also showing that in terms of staffing, San Juan County has a larger staff than any of the other counties when compared to either the number of citizens living in the areas being served or the number of single-family permits issued. (Cities in each county having their own building and planning staffs so were not counted as part of the population served.)

When asked about the problems they face, each county had numerous issues to deal with. Each county was different, but no county seemed to have fewer issues or less serious problems than San Juan County.

The current exceptionally poor level of permit processing time effect job planning, building and trades employment, financing, and the final cost of the home or structure built. The members of the San Juan Builders Association are small business owners who employ carpenters and trades that are the backbone of our working middle class families in San Juan County. Few of them can afford to miss weeks of pay because of poor DCPD performance and permit delays. The irony is that the paychecks for the CDPD are paid dutifully regardless of performance. The private sector employers do not have that luxury.

Survey says: building permit takes four times as long in San Juan County

By Scott Rasmussen, County Reporter, Islands Sounder

If you've been waiting on a building permit to be approved, it might come as no surprise that initial results of a study now underway by the San Juan Builders Association show that it takes at least four times as long to get a permit in San Juan that it does in four neighboring counties.

That's a distinction which the association's executive director, John Evans of Orcas Island, las week labeled an "embarrassment". Evans, a former county commissioner, called on the County Council to make reducing the amount of time it takes for permits to be issued a priority as part of the 2008 budget.

"I've always been told that our county is unique," Evans said. "The interesting thing is we're no more unique that nay of the other counties. They all have their problems but they're getting their work done."

Meanwhile, Evans called on the council to dump a proposed increase in owner/builder permit fees. County officials expect to collect roughly $32,000 in new revenue if those fees are raised to 75 percent of standard permit fees. However, Evans believe that the long-standing program, which about 30 people take advantage of each year, remains one of the only avenues offering people of modest means an opportunity to build a home. "It's the singular best means for people to provide affordable housing for themselves," he said. "I hope you won't price it out of existence."

With 19 staff positions in the Community Development and Planning Department (CDPD) Evans argued that San Juan has more resources dedicated to the agency which oversees building permits - per resident - than either Jefferson, Island, Skagit, or Whatcom counties does. Nevertheless, he said, the study indicates that, in general, it takes four to five weeks to get a building permit in those counties compared with an average "thru-permit" time of 16-20 weeks in San Juan County.

Though still underway, Evans said the study shows Island County, which has 34 staff position in its permit department, issued 580 permits last year for construction of single-family residence while there were 150 issued in San Juan during the same 12 month period. It would be a stretch, he said, to think that local land-use and building codes are that much more complies that they are in those neighboring counties. "I don't know why we're in the situation we're in," Evans said.

Others, including Councilman Kevin Ranker, San Juan South, maintain legitimate reasons exist for the disparity and that solutions are in place to remedy the situation. Ranker said that CDPD has yet to fully recover from budget cuts and a long list of resignations and occurred after the permit center and long-range planning were consolidated into a single agency. The council, he added, has provided resources and positions to bolster the department each of the past two years. "We're still recovering from the previous cuts," Ranker said.

Despite the added resources, CDPA Deputy Director Rene Beliveau said that the agency has yet to find someone both qualified and willing to fill the vacant position of plans examiner. He said, given the staff vacancies, the amount of review each application requires and the complexity of county code - on the land-use side in particular - that processing permits in a timely manner remains an uphill battle.

We're aware of the problem and we've been aware of it for awhile," Beliveau said. "Unfortunately, it will probably continue until we get fully staffed."

County officials promise builders to deliver

By Margie Doyle, Editor, The Islands' Sounder (January 23, 2008)

Frustrations, commendations and horror stories all came out at the meeting of the San Juan Builders Association with County Administrator Pete Rose and head of the County Development and Planning Department, Ron Henrickson, on Jan 16 in Eastsound.

Those present at the meeting represented 20 percent of the organization's membership, John Evans, of the builders' organization said, and they represented between 500 to 1000 workers in the county "who all depend on the ability to get a building built or repaired in this industry. We all want to do the right thing, and we're having a hard time doing the right thing in a timely manner ...because (of the) County involvement that apparently doesn't work together."

The delay and confusion in permitting and planning review was on the minds of many who attended the meeting. Evans cited comparisons in permit times with other counties that can provide single family residence permits in four weeks or less. Evans also recommended a fast-tracking system so that over-the-counter permits can be obtained for simpler projects.

Evans joined others who complained about the apparent lack of agreement between county departments and said, "Somebody has to have ultimate authority." He brought up that permitting time affects the affordability of housing in the County.

Gulliver Rankin called for a Planning Department office on Orcas Island and questioned why full single family residence permit reviews couldn't be accomplished in three or four hour long appointments. Francine Shaw, planner with the law offices of Stephanie O'Day said that the planners are not following state law in regard to the time limits for permits.

Teri Williams of Permit Resources said there was a huge disconnect between the lan Use planners and the Health Department. She suggested that the county delegate authority to planners to make decisions, and that they adhere to International Building Standards to ensure uniformity. She also praised the responsiveness of Planning Department employees, particularly in identifying critical areas of properties that she was investigating.

Rose made clear his commitment to answering the builders' concerns: "If I don't see this fixed, I'm down the road - I think it's that important to the Council." Rose made that pledge after addressing the builders' comments, first saying that when he and Henrickson came to the County in mid-2006, "we recognized the problem, and thought we'd solved it in 2007, but that was just on paper."

The fix didn't take, Rose said, due to the difficulty of acquiring and retaining staff in the face of an affordable housing shortage. The County attempted to relieve the problem by contracting off island planners, and by increasing the compensation offered.

With a plan checker scheduled to start Jan 22, Rose said, "I;am excited to have full staff for the first time in two years - housing drove them away, and that really hurt us." Rose guaranteed that permit application time will be "easily down to four weeks in a couple of months," and that dual tracking may be implemented "as early as March." He added that there is a meeting scheduled for Jan 23 to revamp communications between county departments.

Evans said "People here are looking for an understanding of fairness ...that's reasonable, not literal." In support of his claim, he cited incidents where a permit was denied because of a hal-inch difference in screening or an eight-inch difference in a stair railing.

For his part, Henrickson expressed the frustration of dealing with a department he found to be "dysfunctional" saying "It's harder to fix things here than anywhere I've been. But with the level of staffing now, we can get the timelines you're looking for." Henrickson said CDPD was "committed to give fairness and consistency ...to do that we have to review decisions." Henrickson added, "We have a code that's inconsistent, contradictory, and open to interpretation."

Finally, although Henrickson reminded the group that "The world's more complicated that 10 years ago - more regulations make it harder to d the job," he promised to get answers back to the Building Association members by a February meeting with the Council's building advisory committee. "There's no reason why with these people, we can't do this. I couldn't say that six months ago."

Read Ron Henrickson's written response to questions posed by builders:

Click here.