Economic hardship for builders

As you may already know I currently work for the City of Scottsdale, Planning and Development Department. During the past 3.5 years I have seen lots of changes in procedures, city ordinances, fee increases and staff shifting. However, what I was not prepared to encounter was such a slow down in my department.

My department is called the One Stop Shop. Hence the name, this is the starting point for permitting purposes for both residential and commercial as well as the end point. Plans are submitted though us, they go for review and once these plans are approved, the customer returns to pick up approved plans and permits.

All preliminary stages of a commercial project are also submitted though us, our staff decides if this is something that they can approve or if in fact needs to go through our city council prior to submitting plans. It can be a lengthy process, however according to most of our customers it is one of the most organized within other municipalities.

I have been lucky to meet some wonderful people while working, and it always saddens me when I learn about company "cuts" which are happening much more frequently these days. Some of regular customers which are well know builders are now working under skeleton crews and are still slowing down.

I just hope that in the next few months the economy starts to pick up again. And all these builders can pick up right where they have left off.