Permit pileup: Following the paper trail for Ashevilles growing food economy

Nicknames like Beer City USA, Foodtopia and Paris of the South all acknowledge Ashevilles increasing significance as a food and drink haven. But for city development officials, keeping pace with the permitting needs of a burgeoning food industry has been a hard bite to swallow.

THE RESTAURATEURS HOLY GRAIL

A certificate of occupancy must be obtained and displayed prominently in commercial establishments, but for some restaurateurs, the legal document also serves as a battle scar of sorts. In business settings, the CO states that a building is fit to be occupied by a certain number of customers, and this human-safety aspect makes it more troublesome to acquire than most food and alcohol licenses.

In the simplest terms, the quest for a CO consists of two phases the planning stageand the build-out and the approval of both can require smaller prerequisite permits and months of collaboration between city officials and a restaurateurs team.

Although Ashevilles business development-related services were consolidated into one building years ago, departments continued to operate in functional silos. Over the summer, City Manager Gary Jackson created the Development Services Department a new one-stop shop aimed at streamlining the fragmented permitting process. Despite major strides, his efforts havent placated everyone just yet.

PERMITTING ROUNDTABLE: IS THE CITY KEEPING PACE?

We had a very difficult time in the permit process during plan review, says Hole doughnut shop co-owner Caroline Whatley. Typically, plan reviews are facilitated by a single reviewer, but in Whatleys case, a sudden reassignment added more than 20new items to Holes to-do list, tagging anextramonth onto the plans-approval process.

The process is slower than it has ever been, says Thirsty Monk owner and general contractor Barry Bialik. He feelsthe consolidated approach causes a bottleneck, since many processes are initiated by the handful of employees running the permit desk. Everyone I know calls it the time warp, he says. You pretty much have to budget, for the most minor thing, that youre going to be there for 45 minutes to an hour.

Still others are satisfied with the citys pace. Catawba Brewing co-owner Billy Pyatt says his Biltmore Village tasting room came together pretty quickly, thanks to the helpful guidance of the city staff who handled his beverage permitting. And Vortex Doughnuts co-owner Ron Patton echoed those sentiments, stating that inspectors were thorough but fair and worked with him over a fairly normal term.

Still, crossing the planning hurdle is a fleeting victory for those who face more challenges during round two on-site inspections.

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Permit pileup: Following the paper trail for Ashevilles growing food economy