We’ve been in approvals limbo on our brownstone renovation since January, and have no clear idea 1) if this is normal, 2) if there’s anything we can do about it, and 3) how upset with our architect and expediter we should be. We’re not doing anything crazy – the normal add kitchen and deck to parlor floor and miscellaneous updates of plumbing and electrical. In January we received a “pre-considersation” letter from DOB approving a second kitchen and started talking to Landmarks. It took until May to receive the final go-ahead from Landmarks, after a lot of back and forth about the light fixture we wanted over the front door (4 months total). At that point, we were expecting a turn-around from DOB of less than 1 week with our self-certifying application, but learned that a full plan review was required. Architect has not been clear about whether this could have taken place in parallel with the Landmarks review or not. Now the plan review has come back saying the zoning analysis was missing and we need to have an appointment with the plan examiner to present this analysis – and are waiting to schedule this. We’ve been 5 weeks to date with DOB. So to my questions. Is this normal? Is there anything to be done about it? Did our architect \/ expediter do anything wrong, other than grievously mis-managing our expectations (e.g., not parallel processing DOB and Landmarks, not filing zoning analysis)? For months we’ve been upset at the lackadaisacal way they seem to be managing this job, but we’ve always felt that switching horses mid-stream would only create further delays. At this point though, we’ve been saying that since February… Any insight, advice, re-assurance, etc. would be deeply appreciated!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We’ve been in approvals limbo on our brownstone renovation since January, and have no clear idea 1) if this is normal, 2) if there’s anything we can do about it, and 3) how upset with our architect and expediter we should be. We’re not doing anything crazy – the normal add kitchen and deck to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8247,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"schneps_byline":"","schneps_post_style":"","schneps_post_source":"","schneps_syndicated_read_more":"","schneps_post_source_sitename":"","schneps_syndicated_thumb_html":"","schneps_syndicated_thumb_src":"","schneps_post_source_shortname":"","schneps_post_source_url":"","schneps_post_source_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[422],"tags":[],"districts":[],"class_list":["post-33914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dob"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/brownstoner.com\/forum-archive\/2009\/07\/approvals-sob-s\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Approvals Sob Story – Normal?","url":"http:\/\/www.brownstoner.com\/forum-archive\/2009\/07\/approvals-sob-s\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.brownstoner.com\/forum-archive\/2009\/07\/approvals-sob-s\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"DOB","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"jb312"}],"creator":["jb312"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Forum Archive","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2009-07-07T14:56:21Z","datePublished":"2009-07-07T14:56:21Z","dateModified":"2009-07-07T14:56:58Z"},"rendered":"