#permit-requirements

#permit-requirements

Property owners who want to handle clearance themselves—and avoid racking up costs—should have responded to the county by March 10 to receive a property-specific deadline.

"They need to be treating this like the fire that it is," said Tyler Norod, president of Westbrook Development Corporation, which builds affordable housing in Maine.

Good urbanism should transcend politics. Socialists and capitalists can walk the same neighborhood and agree it's a pleasant place to live. They can each appreciate the tree canopy, the corner café with people spilling onto the sidewalk, the mix of ages on bikes and on foot, the architectural details of older buildings, and so on.

I recognize that if we do the bread and butter stuff, we do the customer service, the customer delivery, then we get permission to do bigger things. This philosophy guides the commissioner's approach to balancing operational excellence with broader policy ambitions at the Department of Buildings.

Dozens of local communities, states, and individuals are suing major oil and gas companies and their trade associations over rising climate costs and for allegedly lying to consumers about climate change risks and solutions. At the same time, some states are enacting or considering laws modeled after the federal Superfund program that would impose retroactive liability on large fossil fuel producers and levy a one-time charge on them to help fund climate adaptation and resiliency measures.

It's like, 'Ok, where? Who do we call? What do you mean?' said Batan, of the Queensboro Dance Festival, which puts on free dance performances, parties, and classes 30 to 40 times each summer. Batan compares the city's complex permitting process - which features an alphabet-soup array of agencies and offices that set guidelines for everything from block parties and street festivals to the use of stages, tents, and speakers - to 'avoiding a bunch of trap doors.'

In the greatest city in the world, we should not accept darkened sidewalks and covered walkways as a fact of life. The mayor's office said crews have already removed or are in the process of dismantling about 2,800 linear feet of sidewalk sheds across multiple Highbridge Gardens buildings, with $14.4 million in state funding covering facade repairs there.

Monterey Park residents describe their predominantly Asian and Hispanic city as peaceful and quiet, with a convenient location in the San Gabriel Valley near to downtown Los Angeles. The intense data center backlash is prompted by an Australian asset manager's proposed project, a 247,000-square-foot site for computer servers that would also include a new electrical substation and, to stave off power interruptions, around a dozen diesel generators.

Through Community Facilities Districts (CFD), Municipal Utility Districts (MUD), Public Improvement Districts (PID), Community Development Districts (CDD) and reimbursement districts (RD), builders can potentially shift infrastructure costs off their balance sheets and onto special districts that homebuyers ultimately absorb through property taxes without potentially adding debt to the builder's books.

Conservation area regulations aren't on the same level as those for Listed Buildings; however, they are still much stricter than in the average home. The most common legal consideration to make is understanding Article 4 Directions. Article 4 can essentially strip away your 'Permitted Development' rights, meaning you need full blown planning permission, even for minor changes, like front doors.

We're also now getting to this point where, despite all of those changes, we're still the slowest city to build. We have to now take a stab at the harder problems, including Charter reform, to enable us to be able to make those changes.

By focusing on what others aren't building, solidifying relationships on the ground, improving processes incrementally, and carving out a niche where they can stand apart from peers, private builders can achieve stronger margins, maintain brand value and grow sustainably despite the advantages held by large public competitors.

All truckers and pass drivers will have to take their commercial driver's license tests in English as the Trump administration expands its aggressive campaign to improve safety in the industry and get unqualified drivers off the road. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the latest effort Friday to ensure that drivers understand English well enough to read road signs and communicate with law enforcement officers. Florida already started administering its tests in English.

America's quilt work of states whose governors and lawmakers are bucking for housing policy change to break through supply constraints at the root of the nation's affordability crisis now counts Massachusetts among them. With a focus on prohibitively constrictive building codes and zoning ordinances, Gov. Maura Healey has adopted an approach officials in other states and cities have taken before pulling the legislative trigger study the matter for a year or more before drafting a reform policy agenda.

Tower Hamlets Council said in September 2023 it wanted to take down the LTNs and was challenged by Save our Safer Streets (Soss). The court said a failure to reconsult was among the reasons for its decision. Soss said that "thousands of local residents will be extremely pleased and relieved". Tower Hamlets Council, led by mayor Lutfur Rahman, said it was "disappointed" while London's mayor called it "good news for Londoners".

Unlike planning drawings that focus on external appearance and planning policy, building regulation drawings dive deep into the technical specifications-showing construction methods, materials, structural elements, insulation values, ventilation strategies, and safety features. These drawings serve as your blueprint for compliance, providing Building Control officers with the information they need to assess whether your project meets the legal requirements for structural stability, fire safety, energy efficiency, accessibility, and overall construction quality.

Cedar Street just came out victorious in a multi-year saga with the city of La Canada Flintridge, winning the first successful builder's remedy case in California Superior Court for its 80-unit mixed-use project at 600 Foothill Boulevard and setting a path for other developers to build. But the fight may have left its scars, in time, stress and now soured relationships with some officials.

The City of Milpitas has cleared a path for homeowners to build or legalize accessory dwelling units (ADUs). With funding from the Community Investment Fund and allocation approved by the Milpitas City Council, the Office of Building Safety will cover permit fees for eligible ADU projects. The move is estimated to save homeowners an average of $5,000, depending on ADU size and other factors.

Enforcement of environmental laws against major polluters has virtually ground to a halt under the Trump administration, a new analysis of Environmental Protection Agency records from January 2025 to January 2026 shows. Major polluters typically include companies that are among the largest in the oil, gas, coal and chemical industries. Records show the EPA filed just one Clean Air Act consent decree compared with 26 in the first year of Trump's first term, and 22 during Biden's first year.

Critics of Zone Zero, who are worried about the financial burden and labor required to comply as well as the detrimental impacts to urban ecosystems, have been particularly vocal in Los Angeles. However, wildfire safety advocates worry the measures endorsed by L.A.'s City Council will do little to prevent homes from burning.

We have clients who have looked at property in the city or town where they live, but simply can't afford what is coming onto the market. Instead, they are considering using the considerable equity they have built up with those soaring real estate valuations in recent years. Many of these people can invest money into their properties and still have equity left after a major remodel and addition.

California lawmakers are advancing a bill that could reframe how housing, transportation, and infrastructure projects are approved in urbanized coastal communities, seeking to balance environmental protections with the state's urgent housing and climate goals. Assembly Bill 1740 (AB 1740) - introduced by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-West Hollywood/Santa Monica) - would allow qualifying cities to bypass individual California Coastal Commission approvals for certain housing and transportation projects if they meet specific urban, multimodal criteria.

APOR is baked into not only Dodd-Frank as a safe harbor against litigation which many lenders want to comply with and use for their business and pricing and risk but also there are a litany of 40 other statutes that are tied to APOR as it's described in Dodd Frank, over 27 states. Lenders frequently move ahead of formal rulemaking, Dunn added. You don't have to wait for the regulation to comply either, she said.

The sudden closure derailed his career plans. A trucking job was a path forward, he said, a way to earn a better living than his current rotation of gig jobs, such as putting up blinds and detailing cars. He had quit working, paid about $2,000 in tuition and fees to attend the trucking school and was hiring a babysitter to take care of his two kids so he could attend class for a few hours each day.