BUILDING PERMITS TAKE LONGER IN CITY OF CAPE

An informal survey of communities in the Midwest shows most of them issue building buildings within about a week of application.

Inspection officials from cities in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and Arkansas were asked how much time generally elapses from when a contractor applies for a small office building permit to when the permit is issued.

"It takes up to five working days usually," said Roger Lehman, with the Evansville, Ind., inspection office. "It depends what day of the week the application is made. We do our site reviews once a week on Monday."

His comment is typical of representatives from other communities. A survey of cities shows the following time periods in regards to issuing building permits:

Jonesboro, Ark.: Less than a week.

Paducah, Ky.: Usually within a week, but two to three weeks if the inspection office is particularly busy.

Rolla: Immediate, if all paperwork is in order.

Warrensburg: Usually a week.

Carbondale, Ill.: Usually a week, which is for city police, water and sewer site inspections. Can take two weeks, but process can be expedited when necessary.

Dyersburg, Tenn.: Usually 10 to 14 days.

Several Cape Girardeau area building contractors have complained recently that building permits here often take months rather than days.

At a special Cape Girardeau City Council meeting April 26, a few contractors said the delays not only were inconvenient but might be driving development from the city.

Cape Girardeau's chief inspector, Charles Hoppe, said contractors shouldn't expect building permits for commercial buildings to be issued in less than two weeks from the time of application. He said the building plans included in the applications often are subject to amendments based on the city staff's review.

Although under ideal conditions, permits are issued in less than a week, Hoppe said that if problems are identified, the plan review process can delay permits several weeks.

"The most common problems involve requirements for fire-resistant walls, plumbing schematics and often problems with lack of communication among the contractors and the architects and the customers," Hoppe said.

Hoppe acknowledged there have been delays in issuing some permits, but he blamed part of the problem on manpower shortages in the inspections office.

"We need a larger staff to reduce delays," the inspector said. "The process has been slow since being understaffed."

The office is funded for five inspectors but has operated the past month with four after inspector Jon Parish resigned in April. Hoppe said the department needs six inspectors and more secretarial help for the work to flow faster. It now has two full-time secretaries.

Local contractors have complained that the building permit process can be time-consuming, costing them money and causing problems for customers.

One example, cited by Oran contractor Joe Gilmore, involved the building permit for the 480-square-foot Hamburger Express restaurant on William Street. Gilmore said it took two months to get the permit for the building, which was constructed in 1988.

One of the holdups reportedly involved insufficient parking spaces for the drive-through restaurant.

But Hoppe and City Planner Kent Bratton said delays usually are the result of either insufficient documentation on the contractors' part or code violations in the building plans.

Building permit applications that require architect's plans are automatically subject to staff review, Bratton said. He said that contractors often present complete plans that are in compliance with the building codes and leave the office with a permit in hand.

The plan review process involves a checklist of 11 items applicable to the building plans. If all the items check out, the permit is issued. The office recently began documenting when the applications were filed and when the contractors picked up the permits.

Bratton said contractors don't always pick up the permits when they're approved.

"Some plans sit down here for 30 days or more before they pick them up, even though they've been notified," he said.

Bratton said that during the past month, most permits involving plan review were issued within three to six days. When code problems are identified, though, the process is drawn out.

Because applications are reviewed in the order they're submitted, some contractors purposely submit incomplete plans just to "get on the pecking order" at the inspections office, Bratton said. By submitting the plans to the city, contractors also can shift clients' impatience from the contractors to the city staff, he said.

Bratton said the Cape Girardeau inspections office has improved its operations in the past two or three years.

He said it's difficult to compare the process in Cape Girardeau with other cities, particularly area cities that don't handle as many permit applications. More than $25 million in new construction occurred in Cape Girardeau last year, he said.