In 2005, building permit applications submitted to Monterey County were up about 50 percent from five years before.

The rise in building permit applications in February was the first in eight months.

Typically, an expediter will charge $2,000 to handle a building permit application, even if it is routinely approved.

More than half of the strength in the leading index in February came from a big jump in building permit applications.

They say a temporary ban would prevent a rush of building permit applications intended to circumvent the restrictions, which have not yet been announced.

On two building permit applications filed with the city, owners classified the building as a residential, three-family structure.

Yet the average processing time for combined sewer and building permit applications is two days, compared with nine days before the new system, city officials said.

In order to maintain the original character of the village, most building permit applications are reviewed by the Building Advisory Committee.

And for an expediter who might be trying to juggle eight or more building permit applications at a time, even a day without work is a missed opportunity.

Last July 31, the City Council rejected the Tierneys' building permit application, saying it would violate the hilltop ordinance.

With the city economy strengthening, the department has recorded a modest increase in building permit applications, mainly in such projects as store or apartment renovations rather than large-scale projects.

The presence of the classified new headquarters was revealed by the Federation of American Scientists who obtained unclassified copies of the blueprints filed with the building permit application.

The developers have not filed any building permit applications, but a Department of Buildings inspector recently examined the site in response to complaints from residents and inquires from Community Board 6.

Increase in Building Permits Applications for building permits, a barometer of future housing activity, rose one-tenth of 1 percent in May after an 8.5 percent jump in April.

According to Tracie Rozhan, a spokesperson for the agency, the commission is notified of and informally reviews any building permit application in a proposed historic district even though its authority doesn't begin until actual designation.

The federal government, already facing fierce community opposition to Homeland Security plans for the old Florida Keys Electric Cooperative building in Tavernier, now finds its building permit application rejected by the county.

Projections for 2006 construction, said Alan Justad, a spokesman for the city's planning department, outpace 2005, when the city accepted a record $2 billion in residential and commercial building permit applications, with $1.7 billion approved.

The measure requires the department to act on building permit applications on an expedited schedule, which the environmentalists say will force officials to grant permits with minimal review, and it strips the environmental commissioner of considerable regulatory authority.

Town council members who are preparing legislation to limit the size of homes that can be built on the water said the moratorium was needed to head off a potential rush of building permit applications before their legislation can be approved.

"I've never been concerned about the acting status," he says before listing changes he has had a hand in, from requirements that make new buildings more likely to withstand earthquakes to a new electrical code to a system for filing building permit applications by computer.

Mr. Tierney said he was in "active discussions" with the Department of Buildings, urging it to develop a system that would delay rulings on building permit applications for buildings that are historic, but not designated as landmarks, allowing the commission time to consider stepping in.