Councilor Coute has big plans to revise Taunton permitting process

Feb. 29--TAUNTON -- Remember that old Navy acronym KISS, or "Keep it simple, stupid"?

Real estate developer and City Councilor Chris Coute says if Taunton doesn't adhere to that military credo -- by streamlining and simplifying its current permitting process -- it will continue to scare off potential investment that creates jobs and tax revenue.

"It's common knowledge that it's just difficult in Taunton," Coute said.

He says the response he sometimes gets from a contractor, when told there's a project-development opportunity in Taunton, is along the lines of: "You're kidding me, right?"

Coute, who is serving a first term as a city councilor, says the traditional rigmarole of shuttling back and forth between city departments, boards and commissions needs to be replaced.

"It's not the people," he said, referring to city workers who are just doing their jobs. "It's the process."

The principal partner of Taunton-based Brownstone Realty Group LLC has established a reputation in the city for investing in sometimes ambitious residential and commercial development projects.

These include buying the vacant former American Legion building downtown on Cedar Street, which he intends to transform into condominiums, at a cost of at least $1 million.

The over 150-year-old structure sits less than a block from Coute's Liberty and Union Ale House, which he opened two years ago after gutting and renovating a former bar.

More recently, he's been working on another condo project at a former Fall River diocese site on Bay Street, and before that he bought the former Niaki Medical Building across from Morton Hospital.

Coute has put together a two-volume manifesto of sorts with detailed recommendations for streamlining the permitting process for both septic-system installation and municipal, sanitary sewer tie-ins.

Both booklets emphasize improving communication between departments, so that the turnaround time for contractors and developers to begin work on a project is significantly reduced.

Coute, who supported Mayor Shaunna O'Connell during her campaign late last year, says O'Connell is on board with his effort to streamline and overhaul what he says is an antiquated and cumbersome series of permitting steps.

"She's making it a priority," he said.

Coute recently sat down in his Trescott Street bar and restaurant to discuss the topic with his project consultant Doug Cardinale and two local contractors and developers.

Cardinale, who hails from South Boston but lives in Easton, says he's worked in the trade industry for more than 40 years.

"The inspectors (in Taunton) are very professional," Cardinale said. "But the process would be a hell of a lot easier if it was under one roof."

Mike Binda said he's been remodeling multi-family units in the city for nine years and more recently has been involved in new construction.

"There's a lack of communication," Binda said, between the various city departments and boards. "Everything should all be in a portal."

Coute, who said he's pulled hundreds of permits in Taunton during the past 15 years, said city leaders need to reform a system that encourages departments and boards to operate as though they are in individual "silos."

"It's time to put the onus back on the city and not torture the contractor," he said.

Steven Figueiredo, owner of Figueiredo Builders Group, is now building 16 single-family homes as part of a new subdivision on the 900 block of Middleboro Avenue.

Figueiredo echoed Coute in his criticism of the current permitting process in Taunton as being outdated.

"It's the process, not the people," he said, stressing that adopting a comprehensive online permitting program, as many other cities and towns in the southeast region have done, is the key to efficiency.

Figueiredo didn't mince words when describing the status quo in the Silver City in terms of the permitting procedure.

"It's a joke," he said.

The group said there's no reason that the permitting process in Taunton shouldn't be as easy to navigate as it is in municipalities such as Attleboro, New Bedford, Easton, Raynham and Brockton.

Coute said Attleboro and Easton, in particular, have become more attractive to contractors since they've implemented an online permitting system.

"The results have been tremendous," said Coute, who says his goal is to get Taunton fully on board with online permitting by next September.

Coute envisions the city's building department internally taking care of all permit-related sign-offs between departments -- which he says will expedite the process and spare contractors the expense and hassle of driving from office to office and waiting for a permit.

"Time is money," Binda said.

Coute also said that change-of-use rules for businesses downtown are unnecessarily demanding and complicated.

"That's why downtown is lagging," he said. "You have to hire an architect to do a code review, and that can cost $5,000.

"Look at downtown Brockton. It's booming, but we've got to be better than Brockton, New Bedford and Attleboro. Taunton has to be number one."

All four concurred that the city's fire-prevention inspection process is the easiest step in the pursuit of a building permit. But they said the city's health board needs to get its act together.

"I've had a lot of difficulties with the board of health," Figueiredo said.

Binda said it's unreasonable that he once had to wait eight months to get approval from the health board to install a new a septic system at an existing house.

Coute recommends that the Board of Health approve all septic plans within 10 business days and that an applicant be required only once to visit the office of Planning and Conservation with the original four copies of the plan in hand.

"Planning and conservation's new goal will be to sign off on all completed/updated applications within 48 hours," Coute stated, adding that "final approval will be sent via email and by regular mail."

"The city's goal is to issue a (septic) permit within 30 to 40 days of applicant starting the permitting process," he stated.

Coute said he wants the office of the city engineer and Department of Public Works to sign off on applications within 48 hours.

Coute also said there's an immediate need to form a committee chaired by Planning and Conservation Director Kevin Scanlon with the assistance of Coute, Building Department Commissioner and chief inspector Bob Pirozzi and the city's IT director Paul Arikian.

The committee, Coute said, will work to implement the fully online permitting process.

Figueiredo later complimented building department inspectors with whom he had spoken and said he was impressed with their enthusiasm for revising the system.

"They seem interested in making us even more advanced than surrounding towns that are already online," he wrote in a text.

He said the revised septic permitting process will reduce the number of vehicle trips from various offices from 13 to seven.

In terms of sewer-related permitting, Coute said it should take no longer than a month for a permit to be issued to a deserving applicant.

Signing off on an application should take no longer than 48 hours for Planning and Conservation, the office of engineering and the DPW.

Once the sewer tie-in permitting system has been revised and improved, Coute said the number of vehicle trips to various offices will be reduced from nine to six weeks.

Binda, Figueiredo and Cardinale said that Coute is eminently qualified for the task at hand.

"He can actually speak intelligently on this," Figueiredo said. "That's an extreme benefit. If you try to explain to other councilors, it's like you're speaking Chinese. They don't understand how it works."

Coute says he's confident the problem can be remedied.

"It's an easy fix if you know what the problem is," he said.

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