Gilbert's Shoes Wins Permit After Two Years!

The Shoe Store received a permit today after a two year struggle and negotiation with the city

Starting with negotiations with the Department of Licenses and Inspections while the building was still classified as condemned - the Shoe Store has been working its way through the city bureaucracy for over two years. Many hoops needed to be cleared for us to get here - here's a short history.

First, to re-open the building, we needed the services of a structural engineer to certify that the building was not in danger of collapse and make recommendations for any structural problems. Yuen-Li came down within 24 hours of our negotiation with L&I and performed a walk-through with the chief inspector of L&I. They found the building to be structurally sound, gave us the keys on the spot and gave us a permit to fix basic structural and safety issues valid for one year ($100)

Second, the building had nothing on file for it's zoning status, which had to be clarified before building plans could be submitted. The zoning was initially rejected because the height of the greenhouse exceeded the maximum allowable height by five feet. This required an appeal to the zoning board and letters of support from our local CDC and councilperson. The architect Grey Smith helped us through this process free of charge before he recently passed. Filing for zoning cost $100 and the appeal process cost $200 for the paperwork. This process took us nearly a year.

After the zoning was cleared we began the process of creating actual building plans that would meet code requirements for us to be legally allowed to live in the building. The architecture firm Friday's offered to usher us through this process and provided an immense amount of free time - thank you so much Don and Tina!! This process took an immeasurable amount of time - our plan examiner continuously found new problems with the plans after countless revisions and eventually retired, leaving us back at square one with a new examiner. The new examiner moved much more quickly and soon enough we had our final rejections for not meeting code requirements. From there we were able to appeal to the board of building standards and after our hearing we won exemptions for code requirements that would have run us somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000! Paperwork for this process cost us another $300

Now we have our permit and can begin work. The fee for getting the permit is $1,150 - after which we can begin the electrical, heat, plumbing and drywall work that we need to complete in order to meet code within the next year.

Stay tuned for updates on the total estimates for materials and labor which are being calculated now - and an extensive work schedule so that shoestore can finally be legitimized! At the end of all this work the building will be legal, however the storefront commercial space will still require a permit process before it can be used legally as a business or fully legit community center

Thanks for all the support over the years - its kept us going and its paying off

Much love
-the shoe crew