Logjam grows on building permits in Palm Beach County due to Wilma, and new construction.

Logjam grows on building permits in Palm Beach County due to Wilma, and new construction.

After four months of waiting to raise the money to fix a storm-damaged roof, Stephanie Martin had to wait even longer to get the permit to repair her leaky home.Martin was turned away three times in one week from the Palm Beach County permit office for failing to fill in the correct building information and other red-tape-related hang-ups.
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Martin's home project is only one of the thousands facing delays after a deluge of construction plans swamped county and city building departments after Hurricane Wilma."We thought we would be able to get started on our roof, but now this permit thing," said Martin, 30, who moved into a "fixer-upper" near Lake Worth less than a month before Wilma. "It is frustrating. I would like to just be able to get it done."County officials received 7,100 building permit requests in January, twice as many as usual. They contend the increased volume is a direct result of lingering hurricane repairs coupled with construction of new neighborhoods across the county.The busy January came after a year with about 20,000 more building permit requests than normal -- 65,000 total in 2005 -- due mainly to construction to repair damage from hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004, said Rebecca Caldwell, county building supervisor.If the pace continues, the county will field twice the permits in 2006 than normal.So instead of taking a week or two to get a permit from the county to build a new house, it can take about a month. Instead of a building inspector showing up the next day to sign off on a phase of a project, the inspector might not get there for an additional day or two.The slowdown affects people waiting for storm repairs as well as those waiting to move into homes under construction at developments mushrooming countywide."We are absolutely inundated," Caldwell said. "We are just working like crazy."The county and cities try to move building permit requests for roof work and other hurricane-related repairs to the front, which can lead to longer delays for new homes or other renovations.Permit delays are one reason it takes more than a year to get a new home finished, said Al Levine, who is building the 280-home Equus development west of Boynton Beach."Time costs money," Levin said. "If it takes that much longer to build a home, it takes that much longer for people to move in."The increased construction comes at a time when the county and cities struggle to fill vacancies for plan reviewers and building inspectors.The county's permit department has 15 vacancies.The vacancies add to permit delays, which not only inconvenience residents waiting for repairs or to move into a new home, but also cost builders as plans get put on hold, said Brenda Talbert, executive vice president of the Gold Coast Builders Association."It is huge ... You can't get your inspections done," Talbert said.Palm Beach County, like local governments across Florida, needs to invest in more employees to process the permits and conduct the inspects needed for the state's building boom, said Scott Worley, owner of Northstar Homes in Delray Beach."It does take a little longer to build a house here," said Worley, whose company is building at the 250-home Cobblestone Creek development west of Boynton Beach. "It is a cyclical business and we are at the absolute peak of building."