Marianne Haughey-Barrios needs a building permit for an add-on to her New Hyde Park home.
Newsday photo by Bill Davis
I live in New Hyde Park and have been waiting for a building permit since last July. Although I’ve seen stories about the indictments in the Town of North Hempstead’s Building Department, I haven’t heard much about how absurd the wait has become for permits. Can you update the town’s permit backlog and common problems?
--Marianne Haughey-Barrios, New Hyde Park
While the town still hasn’t caught up with the backlog created by the 2006 building department scandal involving the illegal issuance of permits and certificates of occupancy, the wait has been “significantly reduced,” officials said.
An 18-month probe of the building department led to the arrest of three town employees, including former commissioner David Wasserman, and prompted officials to temporarily stop issuing permits, causing a delay of nine to 12 months.
Now, it’ll take about three months to get a building permit. The backlog should eliminated by July, town spokesman Justin Meyers said. “The industry standard is 6-8 weeks...We’re almost back to that point.”
In November, the town assembled two teams of four employees to trim the backlog. The teams are stationed away from the building department offices to minimize distractions, Meyers said, and are using a new tamper-proof computer database that replaced an outdated paper file system.
Some common problems such as deviating from the approved plans halfway through the process can cause bottlenecks in the permit process or submitting plans that aren’t fully to code, he said. “The backlog should be totally killed by July,” town spokesman Justin Meyers said. “The industry standard is 6-8 weeks.... We’re almost back to that point.”
In Haughey-Barrios’ case, Meyers said the surveyor who stamped her documents wasn’t licensed in New York and that caused a delay. He expects her to receive her permit for a second bedroom shortly.
--MICHAEL R. EBERT
Comments (3)
I cannot express to you the level of frustration that I have had and continue to have in dealing with the Town of North Hempstead Building Department.
I have been waiting for my building permit since December 20, 2007. Today I contacted the building department (yet again) and they are still reviewing permit requests from October 2007.
I don't know how Justin Meyers from the town can claim that there is currently a three month wait. I've been waiting four months and 10 days and they are not even close to reviewing December.
If the industry standard is 6-8 weeks perhaps the town can hire more people to review the backlog. Instead of having 2 teams of 4 employees (8 people total) they should hire more people to get the job done.
The responsibility for this lies squarely on the shoulders of Jon Kaiman. As county supervisor, he should be encouraging and assisting any homeowner who wishes to improve their property, especially in these dark economic times. Instead, what we have is a horribly slow and lathargic process that creeps along at a snails pace.
My advice, if you are thinking of buying a home in the town of north hempstead - think twice. It is not worth the aggravation.
I submitted my application for my CO's in November 2007. We actually had a buyer for the house in June 2008, still waiting for my CO's.
It is now August 2008, the buyer wants the CO's and even though I did everything in my power to obtain them, hire an expediter, we will be shortly losing the buyer. Now the buyer thinks we are hiding something from him or there are major issues with my house.
I just don't know how the Building Department in the Town of North Hempstead is getting away with this. Better yet, if you do work on your home prior to getting the CO's the penalty is 4x the normal amount.
I submitted my application for my CO's in November 2007. We actually had a buyer for the house in June 2008, still waiting for my CO's.
It is now August 2008, the buyer wants the CO's and even though I did everything in my power to obtain them, hire an expediter, we will be shortly losing the buyer. Now the buyer thinks we are hiding something from him or there are major issues with my house.
I just don't know how the Building Department in the Town of North Hempstead is getting away with this. Better yet, if you do work on your home prior to getting the CO's the penalty is 4x the normal amount.