BRADENTON BEACH – Building Official Ben Carr is working with Mason Martin Builders co-owner Frank Agnelli to resolve a permitting issue for the construction of a new home that had already been partially approved and inspected multiple times.
Carr issued a stop work order on Oct. 2 for the new construction taking place at 1207 Gulf Drive South due to a lack of a proper building permit.
“The home was built completely vertical, with 10 building inspections performed by the building department here – by your private provider – from June 16 to September 18, however they did not have a building permit,” Building Official Ben Carr said during the Oct. 15 city commission meeting.
During that time, the city had a contract with Tew & Taylor for building official services, and Mike Alexander was serving as the building official in Bradenton Beach.
On Sept. 14, Carr began serving as the city-employed building official.
“The only thing that they had was a floodplain development permit. The contractor has been made aware of this. They have submitted a building permit now,” Carr said during the Oct. 15 meeting. “It does seem like it was lack of communication that caused this.”
In an Oct. 29 email to The Sun, Carr wrote, “The earlier city approvals for 1207 Gulf Drive South were a letter of no objection and a floodplain development permit. Neither constituted a building permit authorizing construction of the residence. The project’s state DEP coastal construction permit does not replace the required city building permit.”
Carr said in his email that following the stop work order, the applicant submitted a residential building permit application on Oct. 13. He said the first building plan review has been completed and the written correction comments were provided to the applicant.
“The outstanding review items must be resolved and applicable permit requirements satisfied, including payment of required fees, before the building permit can be issued,” Carr wrote, noting the stop work order remained in effect.
“Work covered by the order may resume only after the required building permit is issued and the city releases the order in writing,” he wrote.
APPLICANT’S RESPONSE
When speaking to The Sun on Oct. 31, Agnelli said he received notice from the city on May 14 informing him that a permit had been issued for the construction of a single-family residence, driveway and landscaping.
“We received an email that said the permit was approved and we gave the city the description for a new single-family residence,” Agnelli said.
He noted Alexander was the building official at the time.
The May 14 permit notice Agnelli received was a status update from the city that contained permit No. FPD-00008. The permit’s new status is listed as “approved.”
Agnelli said he assumed the receipt of that permit meant he could proceed with the construction project. But the permit approved was a floodplain development permit (FDP), rather than the building permit, which Agnelli didn’t realize at the time.
“We’ve never in the past received an email that said the floodplain development permit was approved,” Agnelli said. “We have a state permit and a letter of no objection from the state.”
Agnelli said the FDP/building permit discrepancy was discovered after a recent roof inspection was conducted and approved by the city, and the post-inspection discovery led to the issuance of the stop work order.
“We had the previous city building official do all the past inspections and when we got to the roof inspection that’s when it was brought up that the building permit wasn’t issued. Ben was not there yet when we started this project,” Agnelli said.
“There were mistakes made on my part and there were mistakes made by the city’s building department. We are now working through the post-inspection comments made by the current building official about the missing items and the items the plans designer needs to add, or the engineer needs to clarify,” Agnelli said.
“We believe both parties share the blame. Ben came in after this issue began and it’s not on him. I have been reaching out to the city with no response. The triple fee penalty will be challenged, not to mention the time and money lost by us and the homeowner. The city should have caught this during the first inspection. I would not have started this job knowing I didn’t have permit,” Agnelli said.
