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TIL the fastest way to get a building permit is to bring donuts to the plan desk
I spent 3 weeks chasing a permit for a small retail space on Michigan Ave and kept getting bounced between reviewers. Last Tuesday I showed up at the city office with a box of glazed from the Donut Bar on Gratiot and asked the clerk which forms I was filling out wrong. She walked me through the whole thing in 10 minutes and flagged two signatures I'd missed. Got the approval stamped by Friday, which beat my previous record by 12 business days. Has anyone else tried the food bribe route with Detroit's building department or did I just get lucky with a nice clerk?
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the_brian23d ago
That box of glazed from Donut Bar is doing more than you think, because the clerk who walked you through it is probably the same one who has to redo the paperwork every time a reviewer kicks it back, so you saved her a headache too. Your mileage may vary, but timing it right before their lunch break probably helps more than the donuts themselves.
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