Chamber urging business-friendly permit process

To encourage retail development, particularly by smaller businesses, the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce has offered city officials an eight-point plan for reducing the red tape new business owners face when they apply for operating permits at City Hall.

"Right now we are recommending the city offer to its workers the type of routine customer service training all our business owners know is so important in order to make their own businesses a go," said the chamber's executive director Kevin Donahue. "We don't want to point the finger at specific city employees or departments because we know that every town worker is overburdened at this point. We do, however, feel that a brush up on some basic customer service techniques could improve things markedly."

Donahue said that those who want to launch a new business in town, whether a pizza joint or a major manufacturing operation, face a range of requirements before they can open. Permits needed include a basic business license to those that are necessary to renovate and upgrade buildings, food service and alcoholic beverages licenses, and other specialty authorizations.  

"The range of permits that are required can be overwhelming to even the most sophisticated business owner," Donahue said. "The time it can take between when you apply and when you get all of your OK's can be 12 months or more, which is just too long for most people to wait. They'll lose interest first.

The chamber's most ambitious suggestion is to publish a guide on how to do business in Lynn that would walk prospective owners through the city's business permitting process.

"Several other communities in the area have created this type of resource and we understand it has really reaped rewards by making the process more open," Donahue said.

Beyond that, the chamber has come up with seven other concrete suggestions for cutting down on the paperwork and the time new business owners must invest in the permitting process.  

"When we say the process needs to be streamlined, we mean that the city needs to create a one stop permitting process so that you come to one place for all of your permits rather than having to show up at several different offices one after another," he said. "We also want to cut down on the amount of time a prospective business owner has to wait for these permits."

Donahue said he keeps hearing horror stories that permit applications sit on someone's desk and don't get acted on until the last minute.

Then, he said, instead of being approved the permit gets sent back to the applicant because something minor was overlooked, which means the applicant is in for another 30- or 60-day wait.

Donahue said the solution to that problem is as simple as making sure the clerk who accepts the application checks to make sure it is complete before the applicant leaves City Hall. 

Hal McGaughey, the city's newly appointed director of development, said that all the chamber's suggestions are worth considering.

"We know the permitting process needs to be streamlined and that good customer service at City Hall is the first step to promoting Lynn as a business-friendly place," McGaughey said.  

McGaughey said as part of addressing this issue, Mayor Edward J. Clancy is in the process of reorganizing the various departments related to economic development.  

"Right now we are waiting to see what vacancies we will have now that the city has elected to participate in the state's early retirement program," McGaughey said.

McGaughey who comes to his current position after serving as the finance director for the Lynn Economic Development and Industrial Corporation, said he himself is committed to making Lynn more welcoming to new business ventures.

"People can be quick to complain about City Hall when they might be the ones that didn't get the permit in on time or forgot information," McGaughey said. "But even if the reason a permit is initially denied is because the applicant made an error, we need to be as helpful as possible and spot those mistakes earlier on to avoid unnecessary delays." 

McGaughey also touted initiatives such as the new zoning regulation passed recently by Lynn's City Council allowing housing units on the upper floors of downtown retail and commercial shops because, he said, over time this initiative will help to promote business growth by keeping potential customers downtown.

Maura Lynch, the chamber's president, said she discovered firsthand the hassles business owners face in working their way through City Hall licensing and permitting procedures after her family business burned to the ground two years ago.

"For us it was a good process though a long one, but we had longevity on our side since my family had been doing business in Lynn for 50 years," Lynch said. "It would have been much harder for us if we had been new to the city."

Lynch said she is beginning to notice an attitude shift among city leaders that is favoring business in general.

"Now that both the mayor and the City Council are with us on this, I really do think that we are going to achieve out goal of making Lynn more business friendly," she said.

 _________________________________________________________________