February 15th, 2024

Permits, Plans, and Soon-To-Become Bids!

There has been a flurry of Living Waters administrative action recently. Late last week HY Architects submitted our construction permit application, and an 82-page set of plans, to the City of Berkeley to start the permit process for our Living Waters work!  

The city will do a quick initial review to ensure that the application is complete and then begin a thorough review of the application.  In the next few months the city should be ready to issue the construction permits.

In the LW Update from January 11th, I noted the application to PG&E for upgraded electrical service had to wait for our application for a construction permit.  With our application to Berkeley, we can proceed with the electrical upgrade permit.  PG&E now has the upgrade application and has started to review it.  PG&E reports it often takes 9 months from filing a permit to starting construction on an upgrade.  We have asked for construction to start in May, so will need to see how the scheduling proceeds. 

On a separate track, HY Architects is also finalizing construction drawings that will be sent to subcontractors for final bids.  The drawings should be ready in the next couple of weeks and we should have bids back by mid to late March.  When we have those bids we will finalize our project scope and our financial planning.   This will be another pivotal point in the Living Water timeline and will firm up our plans for construction.  I will look to have another town hall meeting, or similar, opportunity to share this information.  Details to come.  

Once the construction drawings are complete and out for bids, we will get 2 sets of the paper, large format, plans for All Soulsians to review.  Details to come on this process also.

Most people never “ooh” and “ahh” over paperwork moving through large organizations.  But, these are the final steps toward beginning the real world transformation of our space.  After just a bit more administrative work we will be ready to move into actual construction.  And that will be a blessing.

– Richard Lynch