Picture downtown Saratoga Springs: A vibrant and active center that
keeps the city running in a downturned economy. In a time when adding
business and revenue is most important, both business owners and the
city government are feeling strains.
A department in Saratoga Springs City Hall has received its fair share of scrutiny, and its officials are listening.
Many businesses have had trouble getting building permits through the building inspector's office, maybe due to code violations or a simple backup of paperwork. Complaints have been heard throughout town and especially through City Hall. In response Mayor Scott Johnson and Deputy Mayor Shauna Sutton are in the process of overhauling the building department's procedures to speed up the process for homeowners, business owners and developers to get their projects off the ground and ready for work.
"We had the department running one way for 32 years. Former building inspector Mike Biffer did a great job, but changes need to be made to update the system for efficiency," Johnson said.
The job is still currently vacant, and Johnson and Sutton, along with the rest of the building department are left to fill the void. In doing this, the entire building permit application file has been converted to an electronic format which has helped to speed up the process. Previously, Sutton said there had been permit applications that were more than three months old. Today, the oldest permit application is dated October 5, a vast improvement, she said.
According to Tiffany Scaringe, co-owner of Putnam Den which opened on July 4, it was due to these new improvements that she got her business up and running in time for the summer season.
"Our business is in a historic district, so we had to jump through a lot of hoops and deal with a lot of different committees to get our site approved. We were trying to beautify the building but we had to answer to so many committees made up of city residents," she said. "It was the actual departments in City Hall that made this so much less of a headache."
During the transition period in the building department, Scaringe admitted that her permit application got buried and was told that it would take at least four to six weeks to get the permit approved.
"There's no way we would have been up and running by the summer until the Mayor's Office, specifically Shauna Sutton, intervened. She had building and code inspectors at the business after hours to approve our plans. A job that we were told would take six months took a total of 44 days," she said. She did add that one unforeseen code that needed to be followed was having two handicap-accessible bathrooms and a total of seven stalls, two urinals, and three sinks in each bathroom. This is determined by the amount of space in a business.
"We had to gut the whole place to comply with city codes. It's something that had to be done. It was an extra expense but there wasn't a choice," she said.
In a similar situation Jeff Novo, owner of Crush and Cask Liquor Store, had to put in two separate handicap-accessible bathroom stalls, a wash sink and a drinking fountain.
"I have no problem having a handicap-accessible bathroom, but why two? It's a liquor store; people aren't going to come here to use our bathroom."
Novo had to spend and extra $8,000 to comply with city codes. On the flip side, he said that he knew of everything that needed to be done to get a building permit.
"We went in prepared. If you are prepared, there are fewer problems. We were very clear with our intentions and our applications were approved," he said.
This is the kind of message the Mayor's Office is trying to send: yes, there is a transition period, but they are working hard to fix the glitches. They are trying to streamline the process to make it easier for both the applicants and the people working in the building department.
One business, who wishes to remain unnamed, feels differently than Scaringe. They have been waiting approximately two months for a building permit to add onto their current store.
"The building department is dragging their feet. We are trying to bring revenue to this city and they are playing favorites with who gets to build and who doesn't," they said. "Once an application is submitted, it shouldn't take more than a few hours to review a plan and approve or disprove it."
They added that when they contact the department, phone calls are not returned or they are treated with disrespect.
"People who work in the municipal government are city servants. They should act like professionals and not talk down to the people they are serving. They shouldn't be using their office to use power."
Johnson and Sutton said that they are working hard to streamline the process of getting permits approved and have upgraded their phone and computer systems. A new schedule has been set for the employees working in the building department to make a customer-service-oriented front desk.
"We talked to the employees in the department about what needs to be fixed, and we listened to them," Johnson said.
Instead of having people handing in permit applications any time of day, there are set hours- 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. and 2-4p.m. to drop them off. This allows for employees not to be disrupted while going through applications and as a result, better time management and faster application approvals. Until three months ago, the front desk of the department didn't have a phone or computer and that has now changed and a printer was added so there is a capability to get a permit on the spot if that is possible.
For applicants, there is a "self-serve" planning and building application center complete with checklists of everything that must be done in order for the completed application to be reviewed. These applications can also be found online. Even the order in which applications are reviewed has been changed.
"Everything used to be reviewed in the order in which it came in, but it doesn't make sense to pile up a lot of small jobs and work on one large job so a lot of people are waiting. We are really working to change time management," Sutton said. "We are still transitioning, but we think we are really making progress to make this a better-functioning department."
Many businesses have had trouble getting building permits through the building inspector's office, maybe due to code violations or a simple backup of paperwork. Complaints have been heard throughout town and especially through City Hall. In response Mayor Scott Johnson and Deputy Mayor Shauna Sutton are in the process of overhauling the building department's procedures to speed up the process for homeowners, business owners and developers to get their projects off the ground and ready for work.
"We had the department running one way for 32 years. Former building inspector Mike Biffer did a great job, but changes need to be made to update the system for efficiency," Johnson said.
The job is still currently vacant, and Johnson and Sutton, along with the rest of the building department are left to fill the void. In doing this, the entire building permit application file has been converted to an electronic format which has helped to speed up the process. Previously, Sutton said there had been permit applications that were more than three months old. Today, the oldest permit application is dated October 5, a vast improvement, she said.
According to Tiffany Scaringe, co-owner of Putnam Den which opened on July 4, it was due to these new improvements that she got her business up and running in time for the summer season.
"Our business is in a historic district, so we had to jump through a lot of hoops and deal with a lot of different committees to get our site approved. We were trying to beautify the building but we had to answer to so many committees made up of city residents," she said. "It was the actual departments in City Hall that made this so much less of a headache."
During the transition period in the building department, Scaringe admitted that her permit application got buried and was told that it would take at least four to six weeks to get the permit approved.
"There's no way we would have been up and running by the summer until the Mayor's Office, specifically Shauna Sutton, intervened. She had building and code inspectors at the business after hours to approve our plans. A job that we were told would take six months took a total of 44 days," she said. She did add that one unforeseen code that needed to be followed was having two handicap-accessible bathrooms and a total of seven stalls, two urinals, and three sinks in each bathroom. This is determined by the amount of space in a business.
"We had to gut the whole place to comply with city codes. It's something that had to be done. It was an extra expense but there wasn't a choice," she said.
In a similar situation Jeff Novo, owner of Crush and Cask Liquor Store, had to put in two separate handicap-accessible bathroom stalls, a wash sink and a drinking fountain.
"I have no problem having a handicap-accessible bathroom, but why two? It's a liquor store; people aren't going to come here to use our bathroom."
Novo had to spend and extra $8,000 to comply with city codes. On the flip side, he said that he knew of everything that needed to be done to get a building permit.
"We went in prepared. If you are prepared, there are fewer problems. We were very clear with our intentions and our applications were approved," he said.
This is the kind of message the Mayor's Office is trying to send: yes, there is a transition period, but they are working hard to fix the glitches. They are trying to streamline the process to make it easier for both the applicants and the people working in the building department.
One business, who wishes to remain unnamed, feels differently than Scaringe. They have been waiting approximately two months for a building permit to add onto their current store.
"The building department is dragging their feet. We are trying to bring revenue to this city and they are playing favorites with who gets to build and who doesn't," they said. "Once an application is submitted, it shouldn't take more than a few hours to review a plan and approve or disprove it."
They added that when they contact the department, phone calls are not returned or they are treated with disrespect.
"People who work in the municipal government are city servants. They should act like professionals and not talk down to the people they are serving. They shouldn't be using their office to use power."
Johnson and Sutton said that they are working hard to streamline the process of getting permits approved and have upgraded their phone and computer systems. A new schedule has been set for the employees working in the building department to make a customer-service-oriented front desk.
"We talked to the employees in the department about what needs to be fixed, and we listened to them," Johnson said.
Instead of having people handing in permit applications any time of day, there are set hours- 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. and 2-4p.m. to drop them off. This allows for employees not to be disrupted while going through applications and as a result, better time management and faster application approvals. Until three months ago, the front desk of the department didn't have a phone or computer and that has now changed and a printer was added so there is a capability to get a permit on the spot if that is possible.
For applicants, there is a "self-serve" planning and building application center complete with checklists of everything that must be done in order for the completed application to be reviewed. These applications can also be found online. Even the order in which applications are reviewed has been changed.
"Everything used to be reviewed in the order in which it came in, but it doesn't make sense to pile up a lot of small jobs and work on one large job so a lot of people are waiting. We are really working to change time management," Sutton said. "We are still transitioning, but we think we are really making progress to make this a better-functioning department."
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