NYC Development HUB – Timing

By Penny Laughlin

The NYC Development HUB, a division of the NYC DOB has been taking over the review and approval process for New Buildings and Alteration Type I filings for the past few years. The transition to the HUB has promoted a faster approval process, more interaction with the DOB examiners through electronic filings and virtual meetings.

The HUB brought interaction and accessibility to the process, which helped the industry sustain momentum to secure permits and keep projects on specific timelines.

Now fast forward to the present day, the HUB has a larger volume of projects to be involved with and only minimal time to review a project before having to move on to the next.

When issues such as support of excavation methods need to be modified or ‘as built’ construction plans and corrections need to be approved through the HUB, the timing can be as long as 3 weeks.  These types of changes are submitted to the HUB electronically and labeled as ‘Simple Amendment.’ This is a term created by the HUB so that they can distinguish between an amendment that requires the original DOB Plan Examiner’s involvement or if it can be reviewed by another designated staff member to process, since it does not require intricate review.

The more involved amendment is called a ‘Complex Amendment’ and this is expected to be reviewed thoroughly by the Plan Examiner to confirm compliance to the Building Code and/or Zoning Regulations.  The review time on the Complex amendment depends upon examiners availability for a scheduled appointment.

This timing for amendments can potentially create hurdles at job sites and cause issues with obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy.

In effort to maintain project schedule, be sure to plan accordingly given the time frame.