Mason resident says permit review took 10 months, urges formal appeal and process changes

Jim Byram, a Mason resident and business owner, told the City Council on Nov. 5 that his commercial building-permit application, begun in January 2025, has taken about 10 months and gone through repeated rounds of plan-review letters and additional inspector questions.

"I started the process around January 2025. It's been 10 months," Byram said, describing repeated plan-review letters and requests for corrections. He said Meridian Township—s inspecting agency and its lead inspector, Tim Schmidt, told him premanufactured changes to allow a grain-silo-style structure to be occupied "was gonna be a challenge at best." Byram said the project is engineered with steel columns and beams, a poured concrete floor and concrete masonry-unit (CMU) walls but that the inspector kept asking further questions of his engineer.

Byram said his engineer provided updated drawings and confirmation of…