{"id":391,"date":"2009-05-27T22:01:46","date_gmt":"2009-05-28T05:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/?p=391"},"modified":"2009-06-02T17:05:59","modified_gmt":"2009-06-03T00:05:59","slug":"permits-issued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/archive\/2009\/05\/27\/permits-issued\/","title":{"rendered":"Permits Issued!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Almost 5 months after applying for building and demolition permits, the City of Seattle finally granted me my documents last week. With barely any permit applications going through the City these days, one would think things would have gone quicker, but in reality, I feel like the lack of permit flow caused more city scrutiny in the end. The main issue that dragged things out was something I wrote about a little while ago: <a href=\"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/archive\/2009\/02\/25\/city-issues\/\">indemnification<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In short, since part of my property is in an &#8220;environmentally sensitive area&#8221; (i.e. near a cliff) the City insisted that I sign a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seattle.gov\/dpd\/static\/Potential_Landslide_Covenant_LatestReleased_DPDD_005828.pdf\">covenant running with the land<\/a> that did many things I felt were overreaching and unnecessary. I understand why the City&#8217;s standard procedure is to ask for this (and most people accept it as is) but it contained two particular things that my attorney, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prklaw.com\/attorney\/moran.html\" target=\"_blank\">Patrick Moran<\/a>, was thankfully able to negotiate out:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A clause stating that if anyone sued the City for anything relating to the issuance of my permits, I had to indemnify them and pay for all legal fees, judgements, etc.<\/li>\n<li>A clause stating that this covenant ran with the land and if I ever sold the property, the new owners would also be burdened by it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The first clause was reduced such that the indemnification only covers actual damages caused by construction. This means that if a neighbor decides to sue the City because they don&#8217;t like the look of my house, I&#8217;m not on the hook to defend anybody or pay anything.  The second clause was modified such that the indemnification ends if and when the property is sold.  This is key in preserving value, as I would flinch if I was buying a property which transferred such indemnification to me.<\/p>\n<p>A lot more language was clarified as well, and I feel like the $1049.50 I owe my attorney in fees has been well worth it.<\/p>\n<p>During these final stages of preparing for construction, I&#8217;ve also completed a few more tasks and spent a little more money:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We had the asbestos abated for $2,335.64 by <a href=\"http:\/\/partnersconstructioninc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Partners Construction, Inc.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Some additional structural engineering work from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.swensonsayfaget.com\" target=\"_blank\">Swenson Say Faget<\/a> was completed for $2,192.29<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Some additional geotech work was required by the City and performed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iciclecreekengineers.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Icicle Creek Engineers<\/a> for $600.<\/li>\n<li>The additional City of Seattle fee to complete the permitting process was $3,450.75 (bringing the total permit fee to $8,911.50).<\/li>\n<li>Printing fees of $172.91 for some additional drawing sets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So with that, we&#8217;re <em>almost<\/em> all set to build. I&#8217;m still waiting for my <a href=\"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/archive\/2009\/05\/10\/adventures-in-refinancing\/\">refinance<\/a> to close, but after that it&#8217;s all systems go. Unfortunately, the place that is going to deconstruct and recycle most of the existing house is a little booked up right now so we may be looking at July.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also interesting to note that the official amount of investment it took to get to the point of breaking ground has been exactly $78,543.85.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost 5 months after applying for building and demolition permits, the City of Seattle finally granted me my documents last week. With barely any permit applications going through the City these days, one would think things would have gone quicker, but in reality, I feel like the lack of permit flow caused more city scrutiny [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,10,6,3,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":400,"href":"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions\/400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahousebythepark.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}