Fun with Permits
To better illustrate some of the issues NIMBY is currently facing with the City of Oakland we are going to take you along for the ride as we go through the permit process for our pending October 17th special event.
Last week we submitted several permit applications, as needed for this event, to various city offices.
The special event permit itself was first faxed to the Oakland Police Department (OPD) special events office. A hard copy was then hand delivered by Snook to the attending officer in the same department.
To make sure the application had gotten to the correct person, Snook again returned to the police department when the special events permit officer was on duty. At this time the officer refused to either accept or reject the application. The officer stated before our special event permit could even be accepted for review Snook must obtain a conditional use permit (CUP) from the Office of the City Administrator.
There are, however, a few things wrong with this request:
1) The Office of the City Administrator does not issue CUPs.
2) CUPs come from zoning - and have nothing to do with special event permits.
3) The Office of the City Administrator had never heard of ANY businesses being requested to provide a CUP when submitting an application for a special event permit.
Where does this leave us?
On Friday we, NIMBY, are having a meeting with several representatives from the Office of the City Administrator as well as representatives from the zoning department, Oakland Fire and the Community Economic Development Agency to discuss the details of our upcoming special event.
Over the course of the past 12 months we have had numerous meetings with many of the same officials in an effort to satisfy the various regulatory requirements a business such as NIMBY is subject to in Oakland. For the past 6 months 75-85% of the working hours for 3 full time people have been dedicated in good faith to successfully navigating NIMBY through these issues. The issues we face are not just centered on special events, but many other aspects of our business as well. The most costly issue we are currently dealing with is to provide engineering data to the Oakland Building Department demonstrating the safety and structural stability of ISBUs (shipping containers) used for storage and temporary workspace.
We do not know of many small businesses that could survive an ordeal such as we are currently facing - let alone after orchestrating a gargantuan relocation effort.
NIMBY is now reaching another nexus. Once again we will only make it through with your support.
Many more details and updates are to come as the saga continues.
How can you help?
Click the donate button above if you can help us through this very costly endeavor. You can also help by contacting your Oakland City Council Person or the office of council person at-large Rebecca Kaplan to voice your support for NIMBY.
