Permit Process

As documented in a previous post, we acquired a lot with an existing house on it. In order to build on this lot, we had to demolish the house, excavate it and get the site ready for building. For a "build on your lot" project, Fairfax county requires a grading plan, a demolition permit and a building permit.

Grading Plan
Fairfax county requires a grading plan to be submitted for new construction ( http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/publications/grading_plans.htm ). The county requires a fee to be paid to process a grading plan.

We hired a land engineer to prepare and submit the grading plan. The engineer started work on the plan on June 22, 2010. The first draft of the plan was completed in 3 weeks. After the engineer submitted the plan for our review we requested some changes such as moving the house forward a few feet so that we can have more room in the back yard. The engineer worked on the revisions and submitted the plan to the county on July 31st. The county required more changes to be made to the plan. After a few iterations with the county, the grading plan was finally approved on August 31st.

Our experience with the grading plan process was that it took much longer than we anticipated. This is partly due to the one revision that we requested, partly due to the revisions that the county requested and also due to the fact that the land engineer was not able to turn things around very quickly.

Permits
I will start off this section by going over the Fairfax county permit process. Fairfax county requires that utilities are disconnected before it issues demolition and building permits. In the month of September 2010, I was busy calling the Electric, Gas and Water utility companies to ensure that they disconnect the appropriate utilities, remove their equipment from the site and issue disconnect letters to us. I will say that this required some patience since it required multiple phone calls and follow ups. Once I received the disconnection letters, I forwarded the package to the builder.

There are various fees required by the county to process the various permits. To give you a rough idea of what these fees look like, listed below are the fees that we had to pay. Please note that these fees do vary from project to project.

• Grading plan processing fee: $1590.00


• Pro rata fee: $104.00


• Insert fee: $170.00


• Conservation Agreement Deposit: $3,100.00 (Note that this is just a deposit and it will be returned to once the house is completed and we fulfill the county's filtration requirements.)

Demolition Permit

The builder (ANV) applied for the demolition permit on our behalf on 10/7/2010. After the application was submitted, I was able to check on status by logging into the Fairfax County Online Inspection system (a.k.a. FIDO)(http://fido.fairfaxcounty.gov/DP1/Metroplex/FairfaxCounty/permit) and searching for my case either by address or by permit number.

After the application was submitted I stayed in touch with the builder to ask questions when I saw a comment or a status on Fairfax county's website that I didn't understand. The ANV staff responsible for permits was very responsive and patiently explained the process to me. A few days after the application was submitted, I noticed that the permit was stuck in the "Zoning Plan Review" step. To make sure that the process moves quickly, I called Fairfax county permit division, hasseled my way to the "Zoning Plan Review" department and asked for status. This was on a Friday afternoon. The woman responsible for reviewing zoning plans for new homes asked me for my address, looked in her inbox to make sure my case is there, confirmed it's there and told me that she will get to my case by "...early next week...". I checked for status on FIDO early Monday morning and saw that the zoning plan was approved! The demolition permit was issued on 10/18/2010. The point I'm trying to make here is that it pays off to diligently follow up. Had I not called and asked for status, my case probably would not have been handled as quickly as it did.


Building Permit

The builder (ANV) submitted the architectural drawings and the previously approved grading plan to apply for a building permit. The application was submitted on 10/7/2010. Again, I was able to check on status of the permit by loging into the FIDO and searching by address. To make sure that the process moves quickly, I checked status everyday and communicated with Fairfax county and/or the builder if it seems like the process was stalling. I'm happy to say that the building plan review was completed on 10/22/2010 and the building permit was issued on 10/29/2010.