Getting a building permit in Philadelphia

For our bureaucracy project, Kristina and I decided to research the process of obtaining a building permit for a house in Philadelphia. This flowchart outlines what you need to submit your application for a permit. Here's the link to the real version of the flowchart, which contains some links to websites with the paperwork.

http://www.lucidchart.com/documents/view/4d08c727-33f0-41dc-ab32-7f0f0afcbe04

We did our research by finding the application online, and then searching for the supplemental paperwork as we came across it. Also, we used this site as a guide:

http://www.100khouse.com/2008/12/04/how-to-build-a-house-in-philadelphia-building-permits/

The paperwork that we filled out for this was really complicated. We think this is because a lot of registered professionals are required, so we just didn't understand a lot of the language. It was also difficult because there are tons of different forms to fill out, and you have to figure out which ones are required for your individual building.

If i could change one thing about this bureaucratic process, it would be the availability of information. We had to go around in circles looking for this stuff because it's not outlined clearly anywhere on the city's website. I think that the city should have an easy-to-understand guide to make the building permit process more accesible to average people in Philadelphia.

I think that one reason this process has become so complicated is that there are more regulations than there were when the city was first formed. As regulations are added, more paperwork comes along with it so the organization of the process is a bit confusing.

Overall, I think that researching this process gave me a good glimpse of the inner workings of the city. I never realized it was so hard to just get permission to build something!