The commercial permitting process in Harris County is meant to ensure public safety, but some Spring and Klein business owners say the existing system is inefficient and overly complicated, leading to long delays before the business owners can open their doors.

Shawn Sturhan, assistant manager of the permit office of the Harris County Engineering Department, said his department works to ensure commercial development is not negatively affecting a neighborhood—from traffic flow and flood prevention outside the business to making sure fire extinguishers and emergency exits are properly marked inside.

“It’s important, because if you’re opening a new business, the public is going to be entering there,” he said. “Whether it’s employees or customers, we check for building life safety so the people inside are going to be safe.”

However, in Spring and Klein, many business owners report feeling overwhelmed by the number of separate permits they must obtain and the lack of a central location for permitting.

“You have to go through all of the different departments in a certain order,” said Lisa Carnley, a Harris County real estate agent and owner of The Cajun Stop on Kuykendahl Road. “Some people want to do all of their [permitting] all in one day—you can’t do that.”

Obtaining a permit

Before opening a new business, individuals must work with several county departments to ensure the building is up to code, fire safety regulations are in place and health inspections are passed, according to the Harris County Fire Marshal’s office.

Once a business owner submits site and safety plans to the engineering department, he or she goes through a two-week review process with the county. Officials then return with notes on what has to be done to meet codes and receive final approval.

“We are pretty strict on our two-week reviews,” Sturhan said. “Something that could take reviews long[er] is if [applicants] don’t address comments or make a correction [but] it still doesn’t meet code. We can’t approve something that doesn’t meet code.”

Building and fire code staff receives about 20 submissions daily, some of which are entering the second or third round of review, Sturhan said. The department also provides permits to about 200 lease spaces every month.

Harris County Fire Marshal Mike Montgomery said, for many businesses, the fire inspection is the final step before occupancy. However, anyone who offers food or beverages must also request a food permit from Harris County Public Health before opening.

The applicant must submit an application, plan, menu and fee to HCPH, said Deanna Copeland, manager of food and neighborhood nuisance abatement for HCPH. The HCPH must complete its review within four weeks of receiving the application. After the review, a request for a pre-opening inspection  must be submitted 10 days before the desired inspection date. Applicants have one year to complete their portion of the process, she said.

Obtaining the food and beverage permit is not more difficult or time-consuming than obtaining other permits, but it creates additional opportunities for mistakes and delays in the process, several business owners said.

“Health inspectors do tell me that there’s an overwhelming number of restaurants in this area,” said Matt Vernon, owner of the Lasagna House restaurant at FM 1960 and I-45, which  burned down two years ago and is in the process of being rebuilt. “I don’t know if they can’t hire enough health inspectors, but I do know it’s overwhelming for them.”

Darrel York, president of the Prestonwood Utility District near Cypresswood Drive and Hwy. 249, said the MUD’s role in the process is to determine whether it can supply the water capacity requested by the business and give its approval. This approval is needed for a business to obtain a health inspection in areas served by a MUD, Copeland said.

“Once we determine that we can provide [water capacity] and they want it, then the development process proceeds and they have to meet certain guidelines,” York said.

Business openings delayed

Obtaining permits in unincorporated Harris County is a different process than it is in areas with a local municipal government such as Houston, which has its own local health department, said Carnley, who operates restaurants both inside and outside the city limits.

Carnley said any issues that arise during the permitting process can send the permit-seeker back a step.

“When you have to wait 10, 20, 30 days for each permit, you basically are working backward,” Carnley said.

For Luis Salinas, owner of the Woodlands-based Mexican seafood restaurant Fish and Camaron, permitting issues caused the opening to be delayed a year. The restaurant’s Kuykendahl Road location in Spring opened Feb. 27—almost one year to the day later than his original goal for opening.

“Our problem was Murphy’s law—everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” Salinas said. 

Salinas said most of the delay can be attributed to his hiring of a permit expediter and a construction manager who were not familiar with the process of permitting in unincorporated Harris County and were unprepared to address requirements in the county fire code.

Salinas said the delays caused the restaurant’s opening costs to be 70 percent higher than expected because of months of paying rent before opening.

Andrew Neidert has pushed back the opening date for his restaurant, Tapped Drafthouse and Kitchen, from April to May. The eatery will feature craft beer and pizza at the corner of Gosling and Kuykendahl roads.

Neidert said he was expecting a certificate of occupancy around Jan. 1 but  was delayed on the landlord’s side of the process of obtaining that permit.

“That process has been very challenging, but as far as the working through the architect and engineer and health [departments], everything went pretty smoothly,” Neidert said. 

Season Davis plans to open an entertainment business in the same shopping center as Tapped. She said she hoped to open All Season’s Indoor Play Park in late February, but weather-related water damage and unexpected requirements—such as the addition of a left-turn lane on the property—have pushed it back to May.

“There are so many hands in the pot,” Season said. “You work your plan, you try to get the right people, but there’s a lot of stuff that comes up. You’re just bleeding money.”

Proposed solutions

While unexpected delays can always arise when opening a new business, Myeshi Briley, the Spring Klein Chamber of Commerce president, said savvy business owners can take certain steps to ease the process.

“If they would go to the chambers in the beginning, we could stop a lot [of delays],” Briley said.

The Spring Klein Chamber of Commerce is preparing an information packet for business owners called “Know Your Area,” to  ease the process of starting a business, she said.

The Lone Star College System Small Business Development Center also provides low-cost seminars and training at LSCS campuses, Briley said.

The Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce provides resources such as online training and a partnership with SCORE—a nonprofit association of small business owners—which provides business mentoring, HNWCC President Barbara Thomason said.

For some business owners, going through the permitting process is a learning experience in itself.

“For somebody like me that has never been involved in construction of a restaurant or building something, it was a learning process where I had to educate myself,” Salinas said.

Montgomery said planning can help simplify the process of obtaining permits from the fire marshal’s office.

“Choose reputable contractors that understand Harris County permitting and code requirements, [and] make sure you have all the required permits before beginning,” Montgomery said.

Sturhan said business owners can submit reviews online and pay for permits by credit card.

Sturhan said he encourages his colleagues to spend extra time on the front end to help business owners understand what has to be done and why.

“Our main goal here is public safety,” Sturhan said. “We’re not trying to stop development or make it hard to open a business. The sooner I can get you meeting code and open for business, the sooner you’re out of my hair.”