Hurry Up and Wait

Work Crews had been on the construction site since June, but by September, the foreman and inspectors still had no trailer on-site to work from, because Collier County hadn't issued a permit. The project manager blames it on unreasonable demands by the county. County officials blame it on the contractor trying to push the envelope.

It's typical of the tension between those in the development industry and county staff charged with enforcing codes. Developers and contractors argue the permitting process is unreasonably long and cumbersome in Collier County-much more than in other Florida counties. And they aren't the only ones who pay the price.

Permitting obstacles are another strike against the economic health of the community, says Todd Gates, president and CEO of Gates McVey and past chairman of the Economic Development Council of Collier County. Combined with inflated land costs and the highest impact fees in the state, they discourage the kinds of businesses and employers that Collier County needs to recruit, he says.

Agriculture and tourism have proven their shakiness, and the downturn in residential construction is a reminder that all three legs of the region's economy have Achilles' heels. "We have to bring in corporate headquarters, we have to bring in biomedical, education facilities, we have to bring in commerce that is not based on those three industries. In order to do that, we have to have efficient permits, we have to have competitive wages, you've got to have [affordable] housing," says Gates.

Deliberate process

In fairness, developers also complain about state and federal permitting. Hang-ups in securing federal permits to develop the Florida Tradeport in Immokalee helped kill SkyTruck's much-anticipated plans to open an aviation manufacturing facility on-site.

But Collier County's Community Development and Environmental Services Division (CDES) has developed a reputation for operating at a snail's pace.

"It's about as inefficient as it can possibly get," says Al Zichella, president of the Collier Building Industry Association and of Zichella Group consulting firm. "We have [CBIA] members who have been waiting for permits for almost a year."

"We do business all over the state, and Collier County is one of the most challenging communities to [get a] permit, from a commercial-development standpoint," says Gates.

A 2005 study of Collier's permitting and regulatory process, by Naples-based University Research Consultants Inc., reflects great dissatisfaction in the industry. Those whose projects were in the fast-track program "uniformly stated that they would not build another business in Collier County," nor would they recommend it to others.

Zichella doesn't buy county officials' claims that applicants are to blame for submitting inadequate documents. "Our engineers are as good as anywhere in the state. Perhaps the argument isn't about documents but about growth itself," says Zichella.

He believes that instead of codifying measures to slow growth, officials are slowing the process itself. "We feel that slowing down development is deliberate."

"If there's a will to issue permits quickly, it can be done. If there's a will to issue permits slowly, it is done," agrees Gates. "The practical side is, who gets elected by saying, 'Let's issue permits quicker,' and who gets elected by saying, 'Let's stop permits'? Who's ever gotten fired for issuing permits too slowly?"

Battle scars

CDES administrator Joe Schmitt acknowledges that the process can be tedious and frustrating. "Collier in a lot of ways has more restrictions than other regions," he says. "When I first got here [about six years ago], the perception was that developers ruled and got away with anything and everything." He was "bombarded" by residents demanding that codes be more strictly enforced.

"There were some memorable battle scars," he says, mentioning the controversial Bellagio Grande and Cap d'Antibes projects. "Things were done that were perceived to be decisions made by staff that were favorable to developers at the

expense of residents, especially in the Vanderbilt Beach area.

"There was a cleaning of the house before I got here. Whether that was related to the Stadium Naples aftermath, I don't know," he adds, referring to the public corruption scandal in the late 1990s. It resulted in the arrests and convictions of public officials, including county commissioners, and members of the development community.

But Schmitt denies a deliberate effort to slow growth through permitting, either directly or through disincentives that inhibit the process. "I'm pretty hard on my staff on meeting review times and getting things out of this building." But he also won't relax the process, he says. "I'm charged with upholding those codes."

A costly process

To the uninitiated, the permitting process might seem a bureaucratic morass. Depending on the situation, a project can require permits from federal, state and/or local agencies. If it involves developing raw land, it requires a lot more scrutiny by more agencies than remodeling a kitchen.

Federal permits, typically handled through the Army Corps of Engineers, which coordinates with other federal entities including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, deal with issues that relate to the Endangered Species and Clean Water acts.

On the state level, the main player is the South Florida Water Management District, which addresses water and environmental concerns.

County permitting encompasses zoning, enforcement of the county's Land Development Code and of building codes, covering everything from accessibility to safety, which are set by the state and enforced locally. The fire district reviews permits for fire safety. The county looks at engineering, environment, zoning, transportation and utilities requirements, as well as a number of other considerations, from parks and recreation to emergency needs.

Typically, permit applications are rejected initially with lists of what must be changed. Permitting here can take double or triple the time permitting takes in other counties, say contractors and developers.

In the case of the construction trailer that CORE Construction was trying to get on-site, the county was making requirements that project manager and estimator Jesse Olsovsky says he had never encountered before with construction trailers, such as handicap ramps "in case my superintendent was handicapped," he says.

According to Schmitt, it was a complex of trailers-a field office more than a construction trailer. "The county cannot be the scapegoat for [an applicant] being sued because we issued a permit," he says.

Collier's slow pace is partly due to the workload, many agree. The CDES was established in 1988 as a "one-stop shop" to streamline the permitting process, but it has far outgrown capacity, says Bob Mulhere, who was the county's planning director for 12 years before becoming a principal with RWA Consultants in 2001.

"The building was designed based around a workload of 16,000 to 18,000 applications a year," adds Schmitt. It's now approaching 46,000 permits per year.

Compounding the problem is how often codes and impact fees are changed in Collier, says Olsovsky. "Every three months, Collier tries to impose another impact fee, so everyone tries to beat it. Whenever they make a change, it triggers a rush."

What gets most complaints-from both sides-is the number of times applications are revised and resubmitted. Each points a finger at the other.

"Every developer in Naples is frustrated, but they're not sure where the problem is. A lot of them blame the contractor and the contractor blames the county, but it's not working as smoothly as it should. I think the county recognizes it, but they haven't come up with the right solution," says Jack Crifasi, who owns companies in real estate, development and property management.

It's understandable that developers get frustrated, according to Schmitt.

"From the day a developer looks at a piece of raw land to the day they can start pushing dirt could be three to four years, and even longer if you're talking federal-permitting process," he says.

"About 71 to 73 percent of land mass in Collier County is under some form of protection," he adds. "What's left are areas that were bypassed by developers before because they're a lot more expensive, they require so much permitting."

Finally, only about 30 percent of a piece of property can actually have buildings on it once preservation, storm-water retention, parking, buffers and setback are accounted for. Considering land costs in Collier, developers "normally want to put 10 pounds in a five-pound sack," says Schmitt.

He points out that codes and zoning laws are in place to protect others. "Nobody wants to [spend] their hard-earned dollars-whether it's for a $100,000, $50,000 or $3.5 million home-and then find out they're going to put in a concrete plant or brick plant or landfill [nearby]."

Says Gates, "A checks-and-balances system is healthy, but I think it could be a lot more efficient. I'm not looking for the [county] to be the quickest permitting agency; I just don't want it to be the slowest permitting agency."

Ripple effect

With the sluggish permitting process combined with high costs and growing opportunities elsewhere, most of Gates' business is now outside the county, he says. "Up until two years ago, 70 percent of my work was in Collier County. Today about 10 percent of my work is in Collier County."

Slow permitting hurts other businesses besides those in the development industry, says Crifasi. It used to take two to three months for shopping center tenants to get permits to build out their space, but now it's closer to six. "Tenants should be able to go in and have the county guide them through. Small-businesspeople don't have the money to hire an attorney and should be able to depend on the government," he says.