Petsmart HVAC Upgrade Secures Timely Approval Despite Major Delays

Permit Place provided permit expediting services for a stand-alone PetSmart tenant improvement in Tracy, California, working on behalf of Lennox NAS. The project involved an HVAC replacement scope requiring coordination with the City of Tracy Community Development Department, Building Division, for plan check approval and permit issuance.

Delivered within a broader Lennox national program, the project required alignment with corporate standards while navigating local code requirements and maintaining continuity across an extended review cycle. Permit Place managed all City-facing coordination, documentation, and follow-up to ensure the project remained viable and did not require restart.

Challenges

Following the initial plan review, the project entered a prolonged response phase before corrections could be addressed. During this period, maintaining an active approval path with the City became critical, as prolonged inactivity risked plan check expiration and loss of prior review progress.

Ensuring continuity, both with City reviewers and across internal project stakeholders, was essential to avoid resetting the application and incurring additional time and cost.

Solutions and Strategies

Permit Place relied on disciplined coordination and proactive risk management to stabilize the project and preserve approvals:

• Secured a plan check extension from the City of Tracy to prevent expiration
• Maintained clear documentation and a single source of truth for outstanding comments
• Implemented structured follow-ups to re-align responses with jurisdictional requirements
• Applied strategic application planning to refine scope through a targeted change order without reopening resolved items
• Maintained consistent communication with the Building Division to keep the review path intact

This approach ensured that prior review effort was preserved and the project could resume without restarting the permitting process.

Project Wins

• Preserved the existing plan check approval path and avoided application reset
• Secured a critical extension, protecting prior review effort and associated costs
• Completed plan check approval efficiently once responses were re-engaged
• Delivered a compliant HVAC upgrade aligned with Lennox program standards and City requirements

This project demonstrates Permit Place’s ability to manage long-horizon permitting efforts, protect sunk review costs, and maintain forward progress, even when projects experience extended pauses. It highlights the value of experienced permit expediting services in safeguarding schedules and budgets within large national programs.