What a day. Today we had our appointment with the plans examiner to review our drawings and address the objections listed by the building department. This is typical in any permit application. As an architect, the building department is an institution within the city government that I always thought was really cool and of which I give my full professional respect. Their mission is to “ensure the safe and lawful use of buildings and properties by enforcing the Building Code and the Zoning Resolution.” While things have improved since the time of Hammurabi, the building code is nothing to be trifled with and building officials are charged with the protection of the public welfare. They are given power by the State and the City to do so. It is no easy task to keep the city of New York and all of its 8 million residents safe and operating smoothly without any hiccups.
Having worked on the project for the last 6 weeks and having put about 4 weeks of labor into the drawings, you have only 20 minutes with the plans examiner to seal the deal. Otherwise you need another 2-4 weeks to get another appointment. There we were at this tiny desk and you have to figure the first 2 minutes of the appointment are spent saying hello and unpacking the drawings, the next 5 minutes the examiner spends his time familiarizing himself with the comments they wrote 3 weeks ago and then another 3 minutes are spent interpreting their own redlines. 10 minutes are left for 10 objections. It leaves about 1 minute/objection. It is intense and you have to be organized before you get to this point in the race otherwise you will miss the draft and be left in the back of the pack.
After having moved swiftly through the first 9 of 10 objections, the 10th proved to be the molehill turned into a mountain which almost led to a heart attack while swimming in a pool of sharks. The plans examiner took exception with the PW-3 cost affidavit in which our expediter had estimated the renovation costs at $30,000. The comment written by the plans examiner said that the “PW-3 needed to be raised to 500″. It did not say whether it was dollars or donuts but after much consternation I came to the determination that what he meant to write was $500,000, which would have been very helpful yesterday. The information on which I was interpreting the objection as written by the buildings department was not complete or clear. Fine. What transpired afterwards was incredible…
When I asked what formula the buildings department used to determine their cost analysis for renovations they could not provide one. When I asked if we could use the bids from our prospective contractors, they said “that was not a fair determination of market value because I could be hiring my brother in law”. While my brother in law is very talented hybrid individual and I love him very much, I am sure that if I showed them a picture of the door he installed they would have gladly accepted the contractors bids. When I pressed further they said they use $86/sf for a partial renovation and 180/sf for a full gut renovation. I would argue that our property is a partial renovation and we have about 3,000 sf of the building that we are renovating. We revised the PW-3 to reflect $86/sf x 3000 sf for a total renovation costs of $258,000. When I presented the revised PW-3 I was then told that this was too low.
I was aghast. I clearly and calmly explained that we had used their formula to determine the value. The plans examiner then said that the new number was still too low. Again we revised our PW-3 to $115/sf x 3100 sf for a total renovation cost of $356,500 to try and split the goal posts. It was accepted by the plans examiner and we got our approval for the permit
![IMG_3774[1]](https://craftpllc.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/IMG_37741-e1382472935243-225x300.jpg)
Hooray!
What gets my goat though is that the our permit fee went from $1000 to approximately $4000 as the fee is based on the amount of the PW-3 affidavit. I have no idea why it is so subjective, it just is. I understand that the building department and the city operate on their ability to collect fees, but I am not sure why they call it a fee because it felt more like extortion. The plans examiner could have said anything and I had no recourse. I looked deep into his eyes and I knew that there was no way around it, he was getting his way or there was nothing to be had. I argued hard and pressed my case, but to no avail. The truth is we have had bids for far less than our PW-3 but they would not budge. Supposedly after the project is complete, we can contest the cost of the permit and reclaim some of the fee which I hope to have the chance to do. We will see how that goes. For now we are off to the races.
Do you think he would have pounded on you so hard had your opening offer been higher than $30,000?
Look, I think he was determined to get a valuation of $500,000 on the PW-3 and I was determined to give as little as possible. It almost amounted to a yelling match and I took him to the ropes and went over his head to the chief plans examiner who then jumped off the top turnbuckle and crushed me.
You have to remember, they make their money on these fees and they have to make a quota. If they are light at the end of the month I am sure they pound everyone and make their wage. That is why we settled at 356k and tried our best to split the goal posts. I did not want to wait another 2-6 weeks for the next appointment to settle this dispute to get the approval to start construction. That would have cost more money than the increased permit fees that I was arguing for on the PW-3.
What you want when you hire a contractor, architect or an expediter is someone who will argue hard and negotiate strongly on your behalf because it is a negotiation that is subjective and money is money. Even if we had estimated 250k – 300k we would have been in for a dog fight. He kept saying that it had to be more than 300k and he was scoffing at anything less. Remember, the building code is not written in stone and is meant to be “interpreted” however that is defined with whomever you are working with.
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