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Old 07-08-2018, 11:38   #10
Penn
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 3,461
After signing a lease in February, we are up for inspection this Tuesday. July 10th. We expect some resistance to receiving our CO. We expect it, because all local building code enforcement is municipal, county & state regs are what municipal codes are structure on., at least in NJ.

From our experience, having built a number of restaurants, all local code officers are party hacks that are given a real code enforcement role based not on experience, but party affiliation. The building code officer where our current restaurant is located, was the code officer in a adjacent town, when that position closed, they found a spot for that POS, know nothing, here, in this 90% Democratic voting town.

More often then not, due to our endeavors, we have become efficient interpreters of the building codes. This is critical, especially, when working with unqualified code enforcement officials. When then get into a serious jam with a job/contractor, they call in an experienced party affiliated contractor who consults on behalf of the town.

With that understanding outlined, even before signing the lease, we canvased our client base to get the lay of land in the town we were/wanted to move to. It was social, political, recon. Saved us tons of money, by navigating the red tape we might face, with that assessment in place, we jumped through all the hoops. At the end of the day, starting a small business is about clarity, risk tolerance, money. The first two will get you to first base, but without the proper financial package in place, you're time in the batters box is over. imoo
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