Navigating the Permitting Process and Getting Results

Tip for Today #12: Navigating Permits and Getting Results

A poor permit process could lead to a store not opening in time, not meeting a client’s deadline. You need to have a permit in order to install signage in a city or a county. If you install without a permit, you could incur fines. Getting your permit first is your indicator to begin fabrication and then schedule installation. You really wanna have that permit before you really start executing the project. 

Organization is key to permitting because there are very defined steps within the permitting process. No one city or permit is the same. Every client is different, every scope is different. For most permits, the requirements that you need are going to be the application for either zoning, building, or electrical. You’re going to more than likely need a letter of authorization, which is from the property owner or the property manager, giving you permission to install and permit for that site. You’re going to need drawings. Sometimes they require stamped engineered drawings. 

It’s important to verify and speak with somebody because you can interpret the code one way and then the city may, you know, implement it another way. There’s like different cities too, that require different things on the drawing like adding certain measurements, building heights, to-grade measurements from the sign. You need to have a thorough code check in order to have correct drawings. If you are not grabbing code correctly or deciphering code correctly and you have drawings that are incorrect, you’re going to go through revision processes with the city, so they will keep sending you corrections over and over again until you get it right. So every time you have to put a revision in, they could start the review process all over. 

The review process can be really different. It just depends again on the jurisdiction, but we give it about a week typically and then follow up with the city to make sure that they have the applications, they have everything that they need. You know that the city is looking at the paperwork, do they need anything else, confirm the timing, what are the next steps? We don’t want to have two weeks go by that the city wasn’t looking at it just because you didn’t verify. Just really having a finesse to it and listen to what they’re saying. If they’re telling you it’s gonna take this many weeks, letting them have those weeks, but communicating that with a client as well.

It’s important to close out your permit because your licenses are tied to it. So you wanna make sure that the permit is just signed off and closed out. Cause you don’t want to be a delay for a certificate of occupancy. So you don’t want the sign to be out there not inspected and causing delays on that. It’s really just closing the box and making sure that the city signs off on the work that we did out in the field.