Changes You Need to Know on Permit Processing and Building Inspection with Janyce Myrland

Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE:
Welcome back, and thanks for listening to the Team Lally Real Estate show home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne. And I’m Attilio and if you have any questions, just give us a call at 7999596 or check us out online at Teamlally.com.

ATTILIO:
Well, hey everybody. Our guest today is the president and designer at Dream House Drafting Incorporated. She was originally from the East Coast and is now a longtime resident of Oahu. She is a graduate of the New York City College of Technology and holds a degree in Design and Drafting Technology.

ADRIENNE:
Her local design projects have included numerous residential remodels and a number of brand new homes. She prides herself on her ability to translate a client’s wishes into construction documents and believes that each person should be there. Each person’s home should be their castle. Please welcome our guest, Janyce Myrland. Hello. Hi, Janice. Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back. Thanks. So we’re certainly excited to to have you here back on the show. I know that things are ever changing with permits and building codes and rules. So we want to we want to, we want to get up to speed.

ATTILIO:
Well hit us right off the bat. Yeah, you got to the What’s some building code updates.

JANYCE:
Okay, so as you know, each municipality gets to adopt portions of whatever the current building code is, or the current I should say, for their municipality, according to what applies here. So for example, the City and County of Honolulu decided to adapt the 2018 International Building Code with amendments that apply locally so you won’t see things like snow load on our rules, but know that we are now required to comply with 2018 Building Code. Oh, wow.

ADRIENNE:
So is that so that’s moving forward that are being built?

JANYCE:
Yes, and anything that anyone gets dinged for by an inspector that was built without a permit, and now requires an after the fact permits after the fact permit drawings are required to stipulate to the current building code.

ADRIENNE:
So before it was changed to the 2018, what was it out before?

JANYCE:
Well, we were at 2006 for building and 2012 for electrical and plumbing.

ATTILIO:
Oh, wow. Well, it’s better than 1906.

JANYCE:
I don’t think the building department was actually

ATTILIO:
was around at that time. We had to make adjustments. We’re no longer allowing coal fireplaces. But

ADRIENNE:
so what are the major changes, Janyce, that like, between the 2018? Versus

ATTILIO:
that? Yeah, what’s one that pops up into your mind and again, everybody knows,

JANYCE:
most common for people, residentially is going to be if you have an enclosed garage, or any type of gas appliances, or a fireplace, then you are going to be required to have carbon monoxide detectors. They can be carbon monoxide, and smoke detectors combined in one, but they are going to be required to be in the hallway on the sleeping wing of the house. And if you have a really fancy house that has a open flame fireplace, like say in a master bedroom, then you’re going to need one inside of that room also.

ATTILIO:
Gotcha. So carbon monoxide detectors and that my understanding that’s kind of common in the mainland. No, it’s coming. Here

JANYCE:
it is. Yeah. It’s new eating. For us here locally, and it’s you know, so if you have an open cardboard, it’s not an issue. Like most homes, you’re cooking with electric. It’s not an issue, but it’s open flame gas appliances, fireplaces, and enclosed garages,

ATTILIO:
and enclosed garages now as I mean, because that’s stuff could be vented out through the garage, or they’re talking about

JANYCE:
you. Well, you know, carbon monoxide is what kills people who will sit in the car for a long time with money. Yep. So we can Facebook, you know, someone were to start a car with the garage close, that can be a problem. Yeah. Especially if you know, some people like to warm up their cars, etc. Or we do not in this state have a smog test retired on our cars. Yeah, we’re not required to do that other people have to pay extra safety checks to prove that their cars emissions are satisfactory before they can, you know, get the sticker. We don’t have that here. So I suppose this is a good thing.

ATTILIO:
I think it’s going to be they should call it the smartphone code. Because those go go to any shopping center and go in the parking lot. Watch how many people are sitting in their cars that are on in idling cars, looking at their phones, there’s a ton of them, that kind of irks me. So that’s, you know, up there with reverse parkers, because that’s like when your car is idling that is creating the most amount of pollution and carbon.

ADRIENNE:
I think we even saw a number when we were in LA, we saw that warning sign about the air quality inside the parking garage and they weren’t going to be held liable.

ATTILIO:
Yeah, in California. Yes. Not how Wow. Yeah. So you guys, so I guess I

JANYCE:
really have the money to afford to just burn the gas. Yeah,

ATTILIO:
yeah. And so and not the care about Mother Earth, but that’s okay. Hopefully, they’ll will, you know, maybe they learn their lesson in their enclosed garage. And, you know, we still got to put the carbon monoxide detector that says, Hello, why are you sitting in your car idling? So, okay, so that’s a big one. Any other big ones carbon monoxide detectors now from homes built from today forward,

ADRIENNE:
or if they need to get to was built unpermitted or if

JANYCE:
you’re going a modification on your home, you know, losing your array in closing your garage doing an addition, because for a very long time, as long as I can remember, if you were doing a modification on your home, updating smoke detectors was one of the things that was required to be showing on the drawings and you know, part of the scope of work even if you were doing something like adding an open deck to the exterior, so no work on the interior. They’ve been trying to get people to in smart install smoke detectors. So this is going to apply to any and all projects that have enclosed garage.

ATTILIO:
Okay, so just know that that’s what they’re gonna be looking for if you got to control the garage and you got to do some improvements to the house.

ADRIENNE:
Well, let’s, you know, let’s talk about permits, because I know that’s been a really like a hot topic here in the news with the permitting process and things taking long and changing. So let’s let’s get up to speed with what’s happening with our permitting process.

JANYCE:
As you’re probably aware, as of January 1 of last year, 2022, the City and County of Honolulu made it mandatory that projects applying for a building permit be accompanied by a digital set of plans uploaded into the plan system for review. Prior to that there eat plants was available. But I guess it was used a lot less than I realized, because I had heard from the beginning that it was the goal to go to strictly eat plants digital submission. So I made it my business to learn how to use the system and was submitting everything that way. But I guess a lot of people still were submitting paper plans. And they put a stop to that, which meant there was all of a sudden a glut of projects coming into the system. There were still projects that had been submitted by paper that were in review. And they had a lot of new staff doing what was called pre screen. So basically, in the plans digital upload system before a project gets to a code examiner, it’s reviewed by staff in the pre screen department, who are who are tasked with making sure that formatting is correct, and that the documents that are required are there. And I suspect they may have been given training to look a little bit more in depth also, because I got one that came back from pre screen recently asking me to show an easement. The problem is there’s no easement on the cities, PDF of the client’s site plan, nor do the clients who recently purchased this property show any easements on their survey. So we’re not sure I sent it back to them saying I cannot find any easement, please specify what’s needed. But that project now, unfortunately, will go back to the beginning of the line. And this is where the long delays are occurring. In pre screen, we have no way of communicating directly with whoever might have center item back to us. So it just goes back to the beginning. Like it’s starting today. If no matter how long it’s been sitting there, if you are able to or unable to answer their question, yeah. And then when it gets around past whoever and I don’t know whether it will be the same person or not. The hopefully it will proceed to the next step, where you get an email saying that your project has passed prescreen please pay the plan review fee, at which point it will proceed to be reviewed by real code examiner’s Bill Water Board of Water Supply wastewater, building code, electrical code, whoever applies.

ATTILIO:
Yeah, it sounds like if I was took a documentary crew down there to DPP that they would sound like this. And just imagine what it must be like to go down and go to in Russia to go to the DMV. Hello, you’ve come to the wrong line. Oh, but I was told to come to this line, Wrong line, then you go to the other line, or you are in the correct line, go back to that line.

JANYCE:
Unfortunately, people do go through those sorts of issues. And unfortunately, also, to make matters worse, it was decided last month that this digital submission requirement is not limited to residential projects anymore, but that it also now applies to commercial projects. So the pre screen people have even more work on their plates.

ATTILIO:
So the good news is that we’ve reduced the use of paper and saving Mother Earth, the bad news is that everybody involved in this process might need to sign up to get therapy because they’re going insane.

ADRIENNE:
So, Janyce, when you’re talking about like, starting over from the beginning of the line, on average, how long does it take? Once you submit before you, you know, get some feedback with a question. And then have to like, you know, restart each time. What’s the time?

JANYCE:
Well, this is the weird thing. I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense. And I don’t know whether it varies from who who reviews it or what but I’ve seen definitely eight months is a good number. But recently, I had something come back to me and I have to it just came back, I have to see what it is that they’re asking for. But it did not say play, pay your plan review fee. But that one was submitted, like in early April, late March. So I was like, wait a minute, how did they get to?

ADRIENNE:
Janyce, when you say when you say eight months? Is that like you submit your your plans? And then within eight months, they’ll ask, for example, this one about the easement didn’t take them eight months to ask the question and then send you back to the beginning of the line.

JANYCE:
Unfortunately, yes, for a wild last year, it was taking eight months, and it was taking sometimes longer for some people. And I’m, you know, not knowing how to handle this in certain circumstances. Because, as you know, I am a person who has helped a lot of people who were in trouble with building inspectors, they have noticed this violation. And I right now have a panicking client, who, you know, as soon as they learned that they had a notice of violation, we got the building permit application into the system, within 30 days of them having had that notification, but it is now over a year,

ATTILIO:
and don’t have fines that continue to rack up like a daily fine

ADRIENNE:
for now

JANYCE:
they are getting certified letters about fines going to start and a notice of order. So one of the things I did today for them was typed out a list of suggestions in an email, because in theory, they should not be paying any fines. Because the project is under the control of the City and County of Honolulu, which is one of the unique things about the plan. So long as anyone has submitted a project to the city and county, it is gone. It’s under their control. If you suddenly remember you forgot something, or you have an important form that you wanted to add, or the clients decided to change something, can’t do anything until they sent back to you. It’s a closed system. It’s either on one side or the other.

ADRIENNE:
So you’ve been you’ve been in this industry a very, very long time. And I know that you, you know consult with other people that you know, have the same kind of skill set, as you do, you know, all over the United States. Is it like this everywhere? Or is it just Hawaii or just

ATTILIO:
just Hawaii, you have the Russian DMV system.

JANYCE:
People are shocked when they hear how long it takes. And it seems the speed of how long it takes to get things process varies not only between here, and the mainland, but also between here and the outer islands. So one of the things I want to do is check up with a client of mine who I did a set of plans for him to see how his Maui project is coming along. But yes, there is varies greatly and some people are used to much more rapid responses which I think is why the temptation to skirt the process and maybe do the construction and ask for forgiveness later. Hopefully never get caught happens so frequently. And of course, you know locally here nobody wants to be told how it’s done elsewhere. It’s always this snap that mainland. So yeah, we don’t bring that up. But you also have to remember that the code as adopted in other areas is very different. So frequent. Currently, I will meet people who will say things like, Well, I’m not expanding the footprint of the house. Yeah. And that’s because where they come from, they understand that that would be the basis for needing a permit. It’s going to change their tax value, etc. Yeah. But you know, and there are jurisdictions where you can totally gut the interior, and so long as you have licensed professionals working, it’s pretty much okay. But the City and County of Honolulu is not that way. And I guess they can’t afford to be because we have people on, you know, acreage that’s zoned agriculture may have 10, 12 or more acres between them and their neighbors. You have people at the opposite extremes who live in high rises, and they’ve got a neighbor below and neighbor below, above, a neighbor on the left and a neighbor on the right. So I think they’ve probably just decided to create one set of rules that will apply for egress for energy, etc. And it applies across the board. And then that way, it doesn’t, that would be even more complicated if it varied between what you’re allowed to do in Pupukea. And what must do in Kapolei,

ATTILIO:
you think maybe they should just let AI take over that whole department and just install a ChatGPT?

JANYCE:
No, I think that’d be even scarier, you know, they did deploy,

ADRIENNE:
the thing needs to get done now, the beginning

JANYCE:
of December of 2022. And what that did was throw everybody’s work that was in pre screen, back out of the system, back to the applicant, because the bot needed all of the drawings to be remembered. And so the, when I first you know, realize that it was going to be deployed, I kind of kept an eye out. And when I saw, you know, the emails from the system coming in to say that, you know, your, the comment was consistent. Your your plans do not meet. I don’t remember how it was worded, but you had to remember your plans. I had about a dozen projects in the system. And I literally did all of them on over the weekend, because it was deployed on the first day. Because I wanted to get them back in, like thrown back in the system over the weekend, as many as I could. I wasn’t able to throw all of them back in but like I suspected would be the case. The site was overwhelmed on Monday morning, with other people trying to, you know, be submit. I had to wait till after hours for the final two to go back in.

ATTILIO:
So it’s like right up there with trying to get tickets to a Taylor Swift concert is getting your permits approved.

ADRIENNE:
It’s a very complex process. Maybe Maybe they maybe they

ATTILIO:
gotta get some merch. You actually have some merch outside of DPP sell some T shirts and coffee mugs, maybe that can use that money to hire more people so we can speed up the process. You know, by the way if people

JANYCE:
are short staffed? Yeah,

ADRIENNE:
well, I know. I know. I know Augie T has been really pushing this process because it’s causes hardship on on people like major major hardship taking so long and economic impact because people want to work they want construction. And I know too with with Janice, you specialize in like aging in place. Yeah. So for example, someone who can no longer like go up and down the stairs. And they’ve got to wait like a year plus to modify their house, I have

JANYCE:
had more than one client say, cancel my building permit application. Yeah, the contractor to go ahead with the work and I was of the opinion that they should have left the building permit application. Let it continue to work through the process, but I was unsuccessful in convincing them. So I’m positive without even having gone over there that they have done what they needed to do in order to accommodate their family member who was in declining health because you have to remember that when someone has balanced issues or others that they are not only it has a modification has it to those who help them

ADRIENNE:
and they may not have they may not have the time to well and you know, three years they may be passed on by that time.

ATTILIO:
My niece works at Temple Valley. Ability to yeah, my niece at Temple Valley memorial services, she might be working with these clients sooner than you get that permit through a DPP. Yeah, they’ve

ADRIENNE:
got to make some modifications. But we are, Janyce, we are approaching the end of the show. And I just, you know, like, I want to encourage our listeners who are, you know, wanting to do any kind of modifications or remodeling, just call Janyce because this is, you know, a complex process that Janyce is an expert in, she knows the ins and outs. And

ATTILIO:
if you don’t call Janyce, don’t buy any green bananas either. And don’t be trying to do the permit process on your own because one of those things is gonna go rotten faster than you think. So call Janyce,

JANYCE:
really appreciate that. Thank you so much. I would also like to quickly tell anybody who’s thinking of buying Yeah, if it’s not brand new from the developer, that I’m more than happy to come and do a permit compliance. Yes. And because the building inspectors which we did not get to cover, have new guidelines, which are more stringent and pushing the fines out even sooner.

ATTILIO:
You know, we’re gonna talk about that on the next show, because I know it’s this is worthy of that kind of conversation. Because it’s the top of mind for everybody, everybody little little stressed out about it. But thank you so much.

ADRIENNE:
Thank you. Thank you, Janyce.

JANYCE:
Thank you, bye.

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