How long does it generally take for an Alt 1 permit to be approved?

Just trying to get a sense of how long our project would take after closing. It’s not a gut renovation, but would be doing a good amount of work on two floors and adding a kitchen to garden level, therefore changing the current configuration.

WRPListings

in General Discussion 8 years and 1 month ago

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AnArchitect | 8 years and 1 month ago

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Brooklyn DoB has been turning projects around very quickly from time of submittal recently. We have 5 active townhouse projects in neighborhoods across the Borough and have noticed a positive uptick in time of response by DoB. I would suggest 2-3 months to get through the entire approval process. However, be mindful that there are nuances at each property in terms of use, zoning district, landmark designation, construction classification, among others. Happy to discuss further: hola@agenciegroup.com

bk123 | 8 years and 1 month ago

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Last year I got an Alt 1 converting a one family to two family approved in 6 weeks in the Bronx…It depends on the plan examiner and how good the plans are.
http://www.nyc-permit-expeditors.com/

resident2 | 8 years and 1 month ago

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Getting the right architect that does Brooklyn Brownstones all day every day will be the quickest and at the end of the day most economic way to go.
If you are not changing its use; just moving things around, see if you can do it with an Alt 2.

CarmenR | 8 years and 1 month ago

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Mhw shoot me an email greenwoodframed at gmail

WRPListings | 8 years and 1 month ago

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CarmenR, I don’t know if you are willing to share what you wish you had NOT done by the books, but that would be helpful for me. I’m beginning to see that this is often a difficult balance between playing by the rules and maybe ignoring a few rules. I keep wondering if you can do that half way. You seem to be implying that you wish you had been more like 75% by the books rather than 110.

CarmenR | 8 years and 1 month ago

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We did not have the experience Ed describes. It took the DOB 3 months for our initial plan exam (we filed on the electronic HUB and our expeditor followed-up almost daily to no avail.) We went through two rounds of plan exams through the HUB examiners, and they were both performed by different examiners than those who initially wrote the objections. Basically, we were assigned to an examiner, would meet to go through the objections, correct them and then be assigned a new examiner who would dismiss the previous objections, but would raise new ones. By the third time we were assigned a different examiner (and each of these meetings were 3-4 weeks apart) we decided to switch to the brooklyn DOB office because we could have been stuck in that loop forever.
We had one round of objections with the brooklyn DOB and were approved after that single round. (and the examiner was actually pretty flabbergasted by the objections that we had gotten through the HUB.)

I feel like we actually got lucky with our Brooklyn examiner- he was a supervisor and was very nice and I think e xtremely sympathetic to what we had gone through for the previous 6/7 months. It’s worth noting that we also did everything by the book 110% (which was maybe a mistake, in hindsight). Our neighbor who I sited above was at the Brooklyn DOB the entire time and it still took basically 2 years for him to get his permits approved.

agdipierro

in General Discussion 8 years and 1 month ago

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The DOB will review the initial filing set quickly, say 10 – 14 business days. But then there will likely be a list of objections that will need to be addressed by the architect/engineer. Eliminating the objections is what takes a long time because it involves scheduling a meeting with the plan examiner who wrote them. The objections for an Alt 1 will likely take several meetings over a few months before the job is approved.

Guest User | 8 years and 1 month ago

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CarmenR – who did you use to do your TR1/TR8 inspections. Looks like you just went through this and I am looking for someone (Schnall was going to do it for me…)

CarmenR | 8 years and 1 month ago

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Yes, it absolutely can take that long. We were actually really on top of our game and it took a smidge over 8 months and we actually had to transfer offices to even get it done in 8 months. Had we not been so proactive it could have taken twice that long. Buckle up!

eileengray | 8 years and 1 month ago

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Self certification can pose a risk for the architect. If a project is audited and is found to have problems or code issues, they have to be addressed by the architect, who has to prepare a response, meet with DOB, etc. If there are changes to the project that require construction changes, who is responsible to pay for the changes?
The DOB needs more and better trained staff.

christabelgough | 8 years and 1 month ago

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What does it mean for an architect to self certify? And is this really the case that it takes that long to get an Alt 1 approved?! That seems crazy.

CarmenR | 8 years and 1 month ago

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If you can find someone to self-cert, could be pretty fast. Most architects won’t self-cert on alt-1s, though, so get out the canteen and pack a lunch because it could be a loooong time. It took us 8 months to get our permits approved, during which our house fell into a pretty dilapidated state (with us living in it.) It was a delightful time. It took our neighbor 19 months to get their alt1 approved, but they were not super organized.