Making permits overly complicated only makes renovations more costly and less likely to happen. Keep pemits as simple and prescriptive as possible. If you want to slow things down, add an explicit minimum waiting period for permit review and try not to exceed it. If you want to have a contractor with certain qualifications on a project, make that explicitly clear from the outset. Choose an established and unambiguous metric for qualification. Don't try to accomplish these things through a byzantine permitting process or a set of unwritten rules. Keep expectations clear and communicate with owners promptly in the event of unforseen processing delays.