The City of Berkeley Comes Through

It looks like we will get our permits for moving the Delaney House next week.

Joan MacQuarrie, the Chief Building Official, initially had said that she couldn't change the requirements, but she met with Dan Marks, Director of Planning and Development. Yesterday afternoon, Tom and I received the following email:

I’m cc’ing Tom White and Dmitri Belser on this e-mail.

We’re reconsidering the request to forgo the bond requirement for the ‘back house’, so once everything else on this permit is in order, you can go ahead and approve for Building and Safety.

Here’s why:

· The house currently on the lot is just being moved to the back.

· Tom White and Dmitri Belser do seem to have a track record in this work.

· Bonds will still be required for moving the house from UC to the lot and to complete the work on that structure.

· And, we always have the ability to use our code enforcement tools, if needed.

Let me know if you have questions.

So what is next? We have received the Soils Study we paid for, so on Monday Tom will call the Permit Center to make an appointment to turn that in. Hopefully, he'll be able to go in on Tuesday, turn in the Soils Study and, if all goes well, we will have our permit for the Delaney House.

We're hopeful that later next week, the process of moving the house will begin. Elliott has to move out, and we need to cap the gas line and the sewer line. A surveyor from Moran Engineering will come to mark the exact location where the house should be placed. Then Phil Joy can separate the house from the basement, and put the upper storey on wheels. We'll then take down the walls of the basement, and the house can start it's trip 4 feet to the West and 25 feet to the South.

So expect more postings and more pictures. Finally, things are going to start happening again.