DoB Planner From Another Planet
Hello there. We’re doing an Alt Type 1 alteration on a Brooklyn building. We’re going from a building with no certificate of occupancy in the records (it’s been used as a three family/one commercial unit, always in the same family’s hands) to a two unit residential. We had initially wanted to keep a commercial space…
Hello there. We’re doing an Alt Type 1 alteration on a Brooklyn building. We’re going from a building with no certificate of occupancy in the records (it’s been used as a three family/one commercial unit, always in the same family’s hands) to a two unit residential. We had initially wanted to keep a commercial space that had once been in the building but has long since gone out of use.
We are facing a plan examiner from hell. We have thus far had three visits with him following the initial plan disapproval. The examiner is completely erratic. One visit it may be make the bathroom bigger, the next, make it smaller. He wants a fire escape, he doesn’t want a fire escape. It goes on and on. Our architect has made every change the examiner has asked for, and then the examiner has literally asked for things to be changed back to what he initially objected to. He did not want us to have the commercial space, so we took it out of the plans, and in the latest meeting, he told our architect “what about the shop? You know you are allowed to have a shop.” Our architect is about to explode, and we are totally stuck in the meantime, unable to do anything. The examiner is a very old man. We have an expediter as well, and he says he’s seen nothing like this. How do we get around such an erratic person? What options are available to go around this examiner?
DOB
I’ll leave out the PE’s name but he is described to us as rather old, a long term staffer there. What’s driving us crazy is that we can’t see a way past him. He can always come up with more stuff, he can do anything, really, and he’s incredibly unpredictable and unprepared. Every time he jams us we’re down for nearly a month before we can get back in.
At one point he tried to force us to install a wheelchair accessible bathroom, but he did not require we make the relevant access point, a basement door, wheelchair accessible. We had a city issued certificate of occupancy from the early 1900s he wouldn’t accept either. It defies all logic. Do we keep going in hoping to get him on a good day? Is there any advantage to we, the owners, going in with the architect and expediter, to put a human face on this?
I now understand why almost every one on our block does everything under the radar. Not an option for us, so I guess no good deed goes unpunished. I am actually contacting our local elected reps to see if they can help. We’re trying to fix up a very run down property, you’d think the city would be happy with us.
Burpgun: Was it Examiner Michaelowski? He’s an imbecile
We’ve had similar nightmares with this guy and with the Brooklyn D.O.B.
Going over the heads of these moron examiners rarely if ever helps… The senior guys always cover for their own… And if they do overrule one particular objection, they will make up for it by finding 3 new ones to ‘get back at you’…
You raise an important point… The Brooklyn DOB is an utter and complete failure of an institution. The entire system needs to be re-worked from scratch.
Though I generally applaud mayor Bloomberg for being a great and very efficient/pragmatic mayor I question how he can allow such a miserable & dysfunctional city agency to continue
it sounds like your architect and expediter should just ask for the supervisor…it is pointless to lose your temper with an examiner
Sounds like it may be time to go over his head. Ask your expediter about filing a CCD-1 Code determination form. List the items that have been changed and the relevant code sections why they are being changed. List the examiner’s name and specific points from the list of objections.
You should (or your expediter should) be able to get a meeting with eithe the chief plan examiner or borough commissioner.
Ask to see his supervisor.
It’s a union position, right???
Same thing has happened to me. When my architect told the PE that he was going above him he approved the plans.