Welcome to Pulley!

We've designed Pulley to be the fastest and easiest way to get a permit. Whether you're renovating one suite, or building an entirely new tower, or anything in between, we know you're busy, and starting construction on your project quickly is critical.

From identifying permitting requirements to submitting applications, and responding to city comments, we’ve built our tools with a primary focus on speed and accuracy. At every step of the way, we’ve obsessed over making Pulley as easy and fast to use as possible, while ensuring we satisfy as many city requirements as possible.

And the results speak for themselves. In the last six months, we’ve gotten permitting requirements correct upfront with >95% accuracy and we’re averaging less than one round of comments per approved permit. How does it all work? Let's dive in!

Starting a Project

Getting started on a new project is easy. We'll walk you through our intake questionnaire, asking a few simple questions about the address, project type, and scope of construction. We'll use this information to generate an exact price, identify the correct permitting jurisdiction, and start building your permitting plan.

Once we're ready to go, we'll schedule a kickoff meeting with you and your team. We'll walk you all through the permitting plan, our forecasted timeline, and the documents we'll need to submit the required permit application(s).

Identifying Permitting Requirements

In our app, you'll be able to see an exact list of all permitting requirements for your project. We will map out all the permits you need. For each permit, we will identify which approvals we’ll need, making sure we’re getting proper sign-offs from plan reviewers, utility providers, historic commissions, health departments, fire departments, and any other special approvals that may apply to your project in your city. 

Every approval comes fully loaded with all the submittal requirements – plan sets, forms, and other attachments – as well as a detailed forecast, and dependency map. Your permitting plan is assembled by a Pulley expeditor with years of experience in your jurisdiction and is proactively confirmed with city staff before submission.

Submitting Your Permit

As we add permitting requirements, Pulley will automatically assign tasks to the right member of your team, whether that’s you, the architect, civil engineer, structural engineer, or MEP lead. Each assignee is notified and reminded via email. They can click in and quickly drag and drop the items they’re working on for the project. Along the way, your Pulley expeditor will provide feedback on your plans, making sure we are citing the right codes, stamping our sets, and properly labeling key aspects; they’ll even flag design elements that are likely to generate comments. 

Once we have everything we need, we’ll fill out the permit applications and submit them on your behalf. We’ll even pre-pay the application fees to get the permit into review as quickly as possible. We’ll send you an invoice to reimburse us at your convenience, available from our app with one click. You’ll be notified as soon as your permit is submitted and you can verify the full application packet at any time.

Tracking Status

After submitting your permit, you'll be able to track the city's review process, directly from the Pulley app. You'll see each review discipline assigned to your permit (e.g. Zoning, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Fire, etc.). You can click on an individual review to see the reviewer assigned, their contact info, and the specific timeline for their review progress.

We'll monitor this list frequently for you and follow up with incomplete reviewers. We’ll encourage them to complete their reviews and work to get a formal response on your permit application as quickly as possible.‍

Responding to Comments

If the city issues comments on your permit, they’ll be available directly in the app. We’ll load them in for you, parse them out of the city-provided document, and automatically assign them to the relevant member of the project team. Everyone will receive an email notification within an hour of comments being available.

From the comments page, you can discuss any open questions with your Pulley expeditor, or with other project collaborators. If needed, we'll reach out to city staff to clarify ambiguous comments. It’s easy to add formal responses and upload new sheets, directly in Pulley. As we get closer to re-submission, we'll pre-flight our proposed responses with staff, to maximize our odds at clearing comments and preventing unnecessary rounds of review. At any time, you can open the app and track the progress of comment responses.

Approval, Activation & Beyond

From the comments page, you can discuss any open questions with your Pulley expeditor, or with other project collaborators. If needed, we'll reach out to city staff to clarify ambiguous comments. It’s easy to add formal responses and upload new sheets, directly in Pulley. As we get closer to re-submission, we'll pre-flight our proposed responses with staff, to maximize our odds at clearing comments and preventing unnecessary rounds of review. At any time, you can open the app and track the progress of comment responses.

The most exciting step! As soon as we receive all required approvals, we will notify you that your permit is fully approved and ready to be activated. We’re happy to help guide you through this process or hand off the permit to your contractor in the city system.

Our goal is to get you to this point as fast as possible, but don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere. We’re always here to help navigate tricky issues with inspectors, strategize on permit-compliant field rework, and if need be, run through formal permit revisions quickly. You can read more about how Pulley helps during phase of construction here.

Ready to start your project?

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