Utah Business: Permitting bottlenecks and the unseen costs of delay

This story was first published by Utah Business Magazine. Read the full story online here, or in the April 2026 issue of Utah Business.

When we were on schedule to open our first restaurant — Hearth and Hill Park City — by the start of the 2018 ski season, a last-minute issue arose. The building inspector informed us that the restroom partitions were barely too short and shallow, preventing us from receiving a permit and delaying the carefully timed grand opening we had planned.

That opened my eyes to the degree of detail you must pay attention to throughout the process to ensure your professional team of tradespeople, designers and architects utilize their knowledge to prevent delays. It showed how a single inspector can impact a project and how we often take the little details for granted.

When a business owner begins building brick-and-mortar locations and working through the construction process, they may not realize how vital the permit process is to their project’s success. I know I felt that way. Now, having built five restaurants, I’m much more knowledgeable than I was seven years ago about the complexities of obtaining permits and the frustrations that arise when a seemingly minor item causes significant, expensive delays.

For anyone in the middle of a project or at the beginning of one, my advice is to ask more questions than you think you need to. There is no stupid question. Inevitably, one of those questions will solve an issue before it reaches an inspector, thus preventing project delays.

Read the full article at Utah Business.