It’s time again to share an episode from our permit experience!

We smoothly sailed through the Chicago Green Homes enrollment and had our documents passed on to the Department of Building (DOB) to initiate the green permit. This is where the sailing got a little bumpier – largely to our learning curve about the process.

Green Permit Menu Items

Prior to accepting our permit submittal, the DOB checked with me on the Green Permit Menu Items. The Green Permit Menu Items are a requirement by the DOB in addition to the Chicago Green Homes Program with its checklist. Our project (residential, market rate single building) requires two Menu Items. We selected Exceptional Water Management and Exceptional Bike Parking. These were safe bets, in case we have to shift other project items, such as the green roof, to ‘phase two’ because of project budget restrictions.

I referred the DOB to the corresponding plan sections to allow for verification of the Menu Items.

Submittal check list

Once assured that I met the Menu Item requirements, the DOB scheduled a “preliminary meeting [for me] to discuss items required for permit and permit process”. Sounds good!

My green permit project manager at the DOB sat me down to go over the plans and the Standard Plan Review Project Submittal Checklist. And quite a list this is!

The majority of the list is meant for the project architect to make sure the plan set information is complete. That said, there were a number of forms that I took care of:

• The Building Permit Application, which contains information about the building, project, owner, architect and contractors. I got the building classification and building information from the architect and completed the other sections myself.
• The Excavation Certificate, if excavation is part of the project. With the certificate, I need to provide original receipts of notification to my neighbors and the excavator’s certificate of insurance.
• The Electrical Permit Application, which I forwarded to my electrical contractor who completed the form for me.

Another important and recent change to the checklist that I should point out is that the City now requires two original plats of survey that are no more than 60 days old. Yes, you read correctly – 60 days. I know, it once was 90 days, and this change did cost me another $300 because our plats were about 65 days old!

Intake meeting

I left the preliminary meeting with a long to-do list for me and the architect. Once we had all the forms completed and the plan documents in shape, I was invited back to the DOB for the permit intake meeting.

I showed up with four sealed and signed plan sets (three for the DOB and one for our record), the two plats of survey, and the various forms, letters, and certificate of insurance.

What’s next? The plans now go “to the floor” where they are reviewed by DOB staff across the various disciplines (architectural, structural, plumbing, electrical and ventilation). This is officially called the plan review, where the project is checked for Chicago Building Code compliance. The end result is a list of comments or request for clarifications.