Almost there
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
By June 22, almost 2 weeks later, we were able to get the permit undenied despite the fact that it only took 2 days to come to an agreement. This delay worried me in that you only get a few days to request a hearing after denial or you lose your money (over $500) and you have to start all over.
It took 6 weeks to get the agreement drawn up so that the permit could be issued. It was now July 23. The agreement consisted of 3 sentences inserted within a standard easement template and a way to hand over $2500 for the city to hold to ensure sidewalks are made. If there is an example of why people think government represents only red tape and is slow and expensive, this is a perfect example. It could be that the city was overwhelmed and had to lay off people but I found no evidence of either. Their workload seemed to go down due to the economy as fewer permits had been issued for new residential buildings. In addition, they only laid off 2 temporary inspectors.
What you don't know is that the Corvallis Land Development Code (LDC) implementation, interpretation, and enforcement is costing a ton. They had to hire extra people to do these tasks which drives up the cost of permits and city taxes. Supposedly, the permit system is paid for through permit costs. I find that to be difficult to believe. Somewhere in there, costs are going to be carried by the overall tax payers. We just don't see it due to accounting slight of hand. You also may not realize that there is an entire department in the city that deals with the LDC. If Corvallis were smart, they would roll back and simplify the LDC much like Eugene. This would allow the city to get rid of the department that deals with the LDC thus saving tax payers tons of money.
It was July 23rd and I finally had a permit in my hand to both build and excavate. This brought on the "permit dance" from Calvin. The long fought battle had come to a halting screech and work was going to begin.