I like the idea of a national licensing standard with full reciprocity. I know that will never happen due to regional differences in climate, etc. Still, I'd be happy if I could just write one check instead of the thousands of dollars' worth of separate checks to each state, county, city and town in Maryland/Virginia and DC. It is ridiculous and they all work on different renewal cycles. Some two years, some one. It is almost a full-time job to keep up with them.
Forget about that part of it for a moment. I'd rather see a uniform standard in the permit process. Many areas around here are simple rubber stamp upon payment in full deals. Others require a full plan review with a return trip to receive the permit. In some cases, these jurisdictions are across the street from each other. It is just crazy.
Then we have jobs that have a "county" addresses that appear to be in the city or vice-versa. We can have a job in with a Fairfax, VA mailing address, but it is actually not in the city of Fairfax, it is in the county of Fairfax. We have Alexandria, VA jobs that might be in the city of Alexandria or the county of Fairfax, again two different processes. The town of Herndon, VA has it's own "two-day" permitting process, where most of the Herndon addresses are actually under the jurisdiction of Fairfax County. The same thing goes on in Montgomery County, MD where half of the Rockville, MD addresses are in the city of Rockville and the other half are in Montgomery County. My head is about to explode with all of the differing permitting standards.
It's all about each of them maintaining enough separation to justify the requirement for multiple licensing and permitting fees. It's all about the money, that's all.
Sorry for the sidetrack. I'm sure that it is like this everywhere. I'd still like to see a national format for licensing AND permits. Pipe dream for sure.
