[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: P&DS Advisory Group

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Cowles, Macon

The purpose of the Advisory Group to reduce inefficiencies and transaction costs is worthwhile and constructive. The two non-developers that I have spoken with who were, or are, part of the Group have told me that it deals with the friction points in the building process: hours that the City Project customer desks are open, how Use Tax is calculated and paid, inspection issues that arise repeatedly, reconciliation of taxes paid at the end of a job--mundane issues that arise between the regulators and the regulated.


I want to talk about why such a group with the mission that I have stated could be a good thing--on small projects as well as large ones.


I have been told by architects that it can cost $5,000 of professional time just to fill out and process the paperwork for a small remodel. This morning, I had the opportunity to hear the same complaint from consumers: a couple of a certain age where he was diagnosed with Parkinson's two years ago. I visited the couple and their grown son, a climate scientist, this morning at the recommendation of a mutual friend. They live two miles away.

Delay and Expense of permitting.

They live in a split level: a lovely spacious home with a single bathroom six steps above the main portion of the house. He has had increasing difficulty walking due to complications associated with Parkinson's. In order to deal with the expected and dreaded onslaught of this disease, they decided to remodel a 450 sq. ft. space between the dining room and the garage in order to create an ADA bathroom and a sleeping room on the main floor so that she would no longer have to lift him--in pain--one step at a time up those six stairs, to the bathroom and bedroom.

She filed for a permit to remodel in July, expecting the permit to issue and the project to be completed by September.

She processed the paperwork with the aid of a builder. It took, she estimates, $4,000-$5,000 of paid time to provide what the planning department required before a building permit from the City issued. At one point, the building department required architectural drawings of the entire home as a condition of reviewing and issuing the permit for this small remodel, which involved NO change of exterior walls at all. Architectural drawings of the whole house did not exist. The building department suggested that an architect be hired to recreate such. The owners resisted. The builder and the City person in charge of the permit review spent many hours hashing out details and going over room by room photographs of the house as a substitute for whole-house architectural drawings.

It took two months before the building permit issued. And each day during that delay, she had to help him up and down that half flight of stairs: she struggling dangerously, and he in pain, jarred at each stop and start step.

Instead of finishing this small remodel in September, they finished it in December, just days before he was admitted to Hospice for care.

Bottom Line: We have to do better than this. We have to treat each other better than this. There were good intentions all around, but this couple and their family were put through a needlessly expensive and time consuming process in order to do something for which they had a compelling and urgent need. They have suffered, and at great expense, in order to comply with permitting requirements.

There is a lot of angst in the community about the Advisory Group that has been meeting quarterly with staff for a long period of time. I look forward to the report of staff about what the Group has been doing during its meetings. The two non-developers that I have spoken with who were or are part of the Group have told me that it deals with the friction points in the building process: hours that the desks are open, how Use Tax is calculated and paid, inspection issues that arise repeatedly--mundane issues to be sure.

What I learned in visiting the home of this couple this morning is that it would be worthwhile to convene a group of advisors for P&DS on small projects as well as large ones to figure out how to avoid needless delay and expense in the permitting and inspection of buildings. This would be a real benefit for small projects. The expense and delay that this couple went through should not be experienced by others.


Macon Cowles
Boulder City Council Member
1726 Mapleton Ave.
Boulder, Colorado 80304
CowlesM at bouldercolorado.gov
(303) 447-3062
(303) 638-6884