Another stop work order on a renovation on Preston Street. The upstairs has been gutted, new firewalls built, wiring and plumbing … who would have thought a permit was necessary?

I gather the old Paradise water garden store will become an Indian grocery store.

Do renovators just try to do things without a permit to “beat the cost” of buying a permit? Or is to avoid the “rules” that might be in place (like zoning, permitted uses, FSI, etc) by hoping an as-built will get the go ahead that might not be possible for an application made in advance? Or is it that the City’s building permit process is so slow that rennovators/builder’stennants cannot afford to wait for so long to get their permits?