zoning appeal Tag

An additional information request is sent by Licenses and Inspections whenever one of their plans examiners wants to know more about your project.  Getting this letter is not an indication of failure, it is actually considered a standard response as requirements for permits can be as unpredictable as the weather. However, in the off chance you do not receive a request for additional information, you deserve...

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soil-and-water

Previously in this blog, we’ve mentioned the City of Philadelphia’s requests for additional information.  Since we see a lot of these, we are going to create a catalogue of the requests as a reference guide.  We hope that this will help our clients, design partners, and contractors better understand what information is most commonly missing from an application.  (If you haven’t seen it before, it’s...

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add-info-zoning-permit

Previously in this blog, we’ve mentioned the City of Philadelphia’s requests for additional information.  Since we see a lot of these, we are going to create a catalogue of the requests as a reference guide.  We hope that this will help our clients, design partners, and contractors better understand what information is most commonly missing from an application.  (If you haven’t seen it before, it’s...

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Structural-Design

Previously in this blog, we’ve mentioned the City of Philadelphia’s requests for additional information.  Since we see a lot of these, we are going to create a catalogue of the requests as a reference guide.  We hope that this will help our clients, design partners, and contractors better understand what information is most commonly missing from an application.  (If you haven’t seen it before, it’s...

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permit-tracker

When we started out at Philly Zoning, we got a version the same question every week:  Where's my permit?  Once someone gets started on a permitting project, they want to know how far along the permit is, and how they can check its progress.   We give our clients weekly updates to answer that question, but we also think it might be helpful to provide an overview...

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Right-of-Way-Streets

Previously in this blog, we've mentioned the City of Philadelphia's requests for additional information.  Since we see a lot of these, we are going to create a catalogue of the requests as a reference guide.  We hope that this will help our clients, design partners, and contractors better understand what information is most commonly missing from an application.  (If you haven't seen it before, it's...

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One of the most sensible and also counter-intuitive parts of the zoning process in Philly is the community review.   Any time you want to use your property for something that the zoning code doesn't allow, you must seek a variance from the City of Philadelphia (as we've discussed).  When you seek a variance, a community organization in Philadelphia gets to review the proposal before the City...

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We here at Philadelphia Zoning like to think we have answers for you.  We tell you we can saw through forests of red tape, and we mean it.  But sometimes, we get a question that has about a hundred different answers.  "How much does a permit cost?" is one of those questions.   There are a few reasons why such a simple question has so many different answers.   First,...

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Zoning in Philadelphia is a strange enterprise.  The ideas behind it are simple, and the people working the desks downtown are generally helpful.  But in practice, it can be quite confusing.  This little overview probably won’t make the strange details of zoning any less confusing, but it may give you a clearer picture of the overall structure of zoning complaints, requests, and applications in Philadelphia.   How...

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The City of Philadelphia recently combined its review boards into the new Department of Planning and Development.   The Department now houses the Art Commission, Historical Commission, City Planning Commission, and — of particular note to us at Philadelphia Zoning — the Zoning Board of Adjustment.   This seems like a smart reorganization on paper, and there are other departments and personnel involved beyond those boards our company usually...

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