Getting permits and approvals from local boards can be tedious and overly political.  I used to work at a real estate development company that hired “expediters” to get local planning approvals pushed through. 

A Farmington, NY Dunkin Donuts franchisee is finding out the hard way what a pain this process can be.

By Billie Owens, staff writer at the Daily Messenger

Now that the old Pizza Hut building on Route 332 has been razed, it’s going to stay like that for awhile.

A Dunkin’ Donuts is planned for the site, but on Thursday code enforcement officer Floyd Kofahl put the brakes on the project.

He slapped a stop-work order on franchisee David Francisco of Canandaigua because the project differs vastly from what the permit allows. The property is owned by Farmington Realty LLC.

Francisco disputes the notion that the project differs a lot from what his permit allows. He said the only sticking point is a glass wall that he wants to put in instead of a regular one.

The permit allows renovation of the existing building to accommodate a bakery to make doughnuts and sell them. Not all Dunkin’ Donuts franchises have a bakery; most of them have the baked goods delivered from a Dunkin’ Donuts that does operate a bakery.

A bakery for doughnuts and one for pizza, as in the case of the building’s former occupant, is the same under state law. For that reason, Francisco’s plans did not require review by the Planning Board unless more than 1,000 feet were to be added to the building.

But last week, Kofahl said, Francisco informed him it would not have a bakery.
Francisco disputes this claim, too, saying he and corporate officials will make the bakery decision jointly over the next two weeks.

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