City Building Permit Process Given Poor Reviews in Survey : Construction: Many interviewed call the system cumbersome and time consuming. They say it escalates costs.

C’mon, we’ve all heard those horror stories about how frustrating it is to get a building permit from Los Angeles City Hall. But could it really be all that bad?

Yes it could, according to a survey of 501 homeowners and construction industry members who had applied to remodel a home, put up some condos, build a store or attempt any other of the scores of projects requiring permission from the city Department of Building and Safety.

“It was like going through hell,” said one homeowner. “An ordeal,” said another. “One of the worst experiences of my life,” summed up a third.

Most of the homeowners surveyed said the process was too time-consuming, too difficult and costlier than they had expected. Just over a quarter said they wished they had never embarked on their remodeling projects, and some told pollsters they would consider ignoring the law next time by doing the work without a permit.

Builders seem no happier with the process than homeowners are. Two-thirds believe the permit system is a major barrier to working in Los Angeles. More than three-fourths reported experiencing delays, and two-thirds said the delays drove up costs, the survey found.

Yankelovich Partners, a Los Angeles-based polling firm, conducted telephone interviews late last year with 385 professionals in the building industry and 116 homeowners who had applied for a building permit within the last two years.

The survey was commissioned by Progress LA, a business-oriented citizens group pushing for an overhaul of the permit system. The group recently conducted a study comparing Los Angeles’ pricey, complex system with those of other cities competing for business to help revitalize their pieces of the sluggish Southern California economy. And it is working with an advisory committee, appointed by Mayor Richard Riordan and Councilman Hal Bernson, that has made recommendations for sweeping changes in permit procedures.

Progress LA’s study found the local procedures much more expensive and time consuming than those of other cities, as well as unpredictable and less than “customer friendly.”

Steven Soboroff, co-chair of Progress LA, said the group commissioned the survey because it “wanted to understand streamlining needs from the point of view of the user. Who better to tell us what works and what doesn’t?”

Tell they did.

“There is no one particular step in going through the process,” one builder complained. “You keep being bounced from one person to the next and each person has their own ideas of how things should be done.”

One homeowner told of having to wait in line “two or three hours to ask a three-minute question,” while another suggested the city “should hire more people to expedite the process.”

Not everyone was unhappy. Some 30% of the applicants surveyed thought the process was efficient, and 18% actually described it as “a pleasant experience.”

“It was easy,” said one homeowner. “The employees were helpful, the inspectors showed up when they said they would show up, and they were cooperative.”

Despite strong dissatisfaction overall with the process, the applicants surveyed did not seem to blame the city employees. A majority of homeowners and builders alike found a lot or a “fair amount” of staff members knowledgeable, intelligent and professional. Just under one fifth of each group said employees were unfair and rude.