Building in the inner city – the old Midtown athletic club racquetball court – is headed toward becoming another of Sacramento’s popular inner city entertainment areas.

April Fools’ Day – what a day for a permit or project to begin.

The business owner had already posted her liquor license application about 60 days prior and received several letters in protest for which she had started the stressful mitigation process*.Once the conditions imposed by the Alcoholic Beverage Control were met, based on a few neighbors concerns living in one multi-unit Victorian apartment building— six units maybe – located behind the business in the predominantly commercial corridor of downtown. ( 1300 H street across from Brew it up & city parking garage )

BTW , this occurs after spending a good sum of money on a very detailed set of architectural drawings by DC Architects, bidding the project out, massive value engineering to fit budget restrictions, Then choosing and awarding the build-out to a contractor(me). And, lest I forget, paying planning review fees of $1,479 (and two more fees later in Plan of $140 each), building permit fees of $3883.80, sewer impact of $3878.40**, county health fees totaling $1,758, $1,500 to fire for flow testing and analysis, flush testing fees... It was time to start.

April 1 was a Thursday, and anticipating the arrival of the permit, I had already arranged for the concrete to be cut in this 1960s concrete tilt-up.

Friday morning, we discovered the secrets below the 1960s-era slab. (Mr. Burg or someone may be able to tell us what was once on this site.) We found huge old footings under the existing slab (approx. 6 feet in diameter and more than 6 feet in depth — we never saw the bottom, all of which came at the expense of the plumber and I (in our desire to move forward rather than fight for a change order etc.) had to be mitigated.

By Tuesday we were laying underground pipe; by Friday we were calling for inspection, pouring back concrete and cleaning up the site all weekend as to be ready for framing on Monday the 12th. Yee Haw! Up with the steel studs, rough electrical and plumbing.

As with all projects, there were many weird issues. We value-engineered the removal of the upstairs storage area for a project savings of about $20,000 or more. Because of this change, we needed to resubmit plans—Eeek. The architect and I headed to the Development Services Department.

It was 9am. We arrived and spoke with Ed Oswald, the recent appointee in place of Dan Waters. We needed to highlight and remove anything on the plans referring to the removed storage area, make copies, then get signatures from all disciplines.

We had the paper portion done by 11:30 or so yet still needed copies and signatures. Plan review is only open from 1-3 p.m. After lunch, we met with Mr. Oswald again. He was awesome . He made us copies, arranged for the individual plan reviewers to each come to the counter, review, and sign. I paid my $140 review fee, and by 3 p.m. we were back in business and ready for rough wall inspection by late in the third week of April.

I was fortunate with the inspections. I beleive I have a good relationship with most of the inspectors. It is obvious I don’t know them all, but most of the downtown folks for sure.

It’s my first building inspection at this location, and it’s a sheetrock nail inspection on a firewall (splitting the building in half, which needed to be complete and signed off on prior to our framing inspection, which was a day or two away).

The inspector, David Philips, took out a tape measure to ensure there were 8 inches between screws.I was not feeling good about our first encounter, yes , panic was setting in ( BTW there were 6 screws on every short side of the drywall sheets) I continued to show Phillips the rest of the project, my areas of concern and seek counsel on those areas, inform him of my upcoming schedule, and he signed off. Whew, first meeting survived!

After he left, the whole crew immediately asked what I did to make him so mad he would pull a tape measure on a drywall inspection. I played it off and went on in good faith.

We got the rough walls inspected by the 23rd, electrical and plumbing within the next few days, and then it was off to drywall (another sheetrock inspection with no tape measure this time ).

The balance of the project went pretty normally, had some issues with the sprinkler and monitoring system, as this was contracted with the building owner, and there were some conflicts in schedules as well as inspections on existing equipment, etc.

I had to submit for fire approval on an upgraded monitoring system, which took place on the Monday after the Thursday I had spent getting the resubmission of the removal of the storage area.

After getting fire sign-off on the monitoring system, I receive a bill for the plan review of $140 along with a second charge of $140. I question the second charge. The second charge according to Mr Oswald (once again the man in charge of the counter) said it was “From when you were here last week. We forgot to bill you.”

Hmmmm really ? I paid the bill and got back to work.

Things were progressing well, and it was on to finishes. Reclaimed lumber from the old cannery being demolished in the Township 9 Project was acquired and used.

I established a relationship with the owner of a mechanical bull manufacturing company and learned all about the equipment aspect (It uses a 10-horsepower electric motor running a Weg hydraulic pump) and the fine art of operating and riding a mechanical bull.

I discovered the little Knox boxes that house keys for the fire department are $300 and can only be acquired through one distributor with the fire department’s authorization. I also had a visit from three city staffers all doing the designer stare at the front of the building.

Sites, Crouch and Sanchez – all three deciding how and where the sign would look best (I never knew they were designers too).

In summary, the permit was pulled on April 1. We had our fire sign-off on June 15, which could’ve happened almost a week sooner had we gotten an earlier appointment from AT&T for the phone lines for the fire alarm.

That’s 75 days from start to finish for construction. Impressive, huh? I am impressed, and I would like to say it is due to my aggressive work ethic and talented crew. However, I am writing this to acknowledge all those in the Development Services Department (which has been abused lately in the press) who truly helped me every step of the way.

   Yes, the architect’s willingness to be so attentive to help mitigate every change or surprise requirement was huge, but just as much so was the willingness to educate me and my subcontractors in exactly what was needed to get everything passed and signed off quickly and efficiently by DSD staff. (Mr. Philips is now a valued asset, not a scary measuring tape wielding inspector).

Yes, Sacramento has a lot to learn about helping business owners do business in our city. However, the DSD has some fantastic folks who are very helpful, and I want to thank them as well as tell others that despite the cutbacks and bad press, overall we have great DSD staff we can be proud of.

   *This process is so scary for an owner; an entire business plan’s success or failure (someone’s lifelong dream, not to mention life savings in many cases) can hinge on ABC restrictions that can come from neighbors’ complaints (20 or one) or police department concerns, etc. Additionally, by the time a business owner gets to the point of posting, he or she has, in most cases, already signed a lease with a building owner or bought a building, as well spent thousands on a liquor license, building designs, architectural plans and other entitlements.

**Another weird, kinda-unknown is sewer Impact fees. They have to do with what was there before you as well what and how much you are going to be putting into the sewer. The fees are big: for a new small coffee shop, for example, they can be as much as $9,000. However, the city and its Economic Development Department in their wisdom and grace can also issue credits based on your economic impact to the city (e.g. how many employees and how much sales tax revenue is generated). There is a great guy (Trevor) there to assist in the calculation of these credits, thus your net fee.