In May, the Apple Construction Corp. sought permission to build a 550-square-feet, wood-frame garage attached to a private home.

The modest project required no zoning variances and faced no challenges from abutters. But the Warwick Building Department did not grant a permit for more than two months, delaying construction until August, according to Richard Welch, president of the North Kingstown-based company.

“That’s utterly ridiculous, and that’s without any problems,” Welch said in an interview yesterday. “How can you work under those conditions?”

The Rhode Island Builders Association says the obstacles Apple Construction faced plague developers throughout the state, with builders confronting interminable delays in the issuance of permits.

That impediment, the association says, has stifled economic development and made the cost of construction balloon.

In an attempt to speed up the permitting process, the association has sued nine cities and towns, arguing that the glacial pace of municipal decision-making violates state law and deprives landowners of their property rights. The defendants include Warwick, Cranston, Lincoln, West Warwick, North Kingstown, Cumberland, Newport, North Providence and Woonsocket.

“It has a huge impact,” Roger R. Warren, the association’s executive director, said yesterday. “Time is money.”

Since the lawsuit was filed in 2005, some municipalities have instituted reforms, but the builders association says the permitting process is still too costly and time consuming.

The delays leave builders idle while the cost of construction materials rises, interest on loans accumulates and a client’s frustration intensifies, the association says. Projects scheduled to conclude in the fall spill into the winter, when the pace of construction slows and builders shoulder the cost of higher wages and heating work sites.

The lawsuit cites permit applications that were under review for as long as 19 months. The result, the association says, has been a steady decline in development throughout the state.

From 1999 to 2006, the number of building permits issued statewide declined by nearly 40 percent, from 2,600 to 1,600, according to the association. Though the period saw a weakened housing market, the number of permits dropped even in times of strong housing demand.

The situation has worsened, Warren said, as cash-strapped municipalities fail to fully staff building departments, raise fees and attempt to stifle residential developments that would strain city services and schools.

The complaint also challenges the permit fees, arguing that they exceed the cost of providing the review and amount to an “illegal tax” that violates the state Constitution. It asks that more than $400,000 in fees from the nine communities be refunded.

The builders’ association filed its complaint in Providence Superior Court in late 2005, and for more than a year it has tried to negotiate a consent agreement with the municipalities, according to John O. Mancini, the group’s lawyer.

Those talks recently broke down, and the association is now preparing a motion for summary judgment, asking the court to mandate that cities and towns rule on building-permit applications within 30 days.

Marc DeSisto, a lawyer for the Rhode Island Interlocal Risk Management Trust, who is representing all of the defendants except the cities of Cranston and Woonsocket, declined to comment yesterday.

Lawyer Christopher Orton, who is defending Cranston in the case, was not available for comment. The Woonsocket city solicitor, Christopher Lambert, said he was not aware of the complaint, which was amended last month to include Woonsocket as a defendant. “That hasn’t come across my desk,” he said.

The lawsuit has apparently spurred reforms in several communities.

In Cranston, Mayor Michael T. Napolitano last month fired the city’s building official, saying delays in permitting were strangling economic development.

In Warwick, Mayor Scott Avedisian has created a position in the Planning Department — business development planner and coordinator — to assist the various city agencies that participate in the permitting process.

“It pushed us to get the planned reorganization of Building [Department] done quicker,” Avedisian said. “We’re getting good reviews from people now as to how quickly we can turn things around.”

The builders’ group has also taken steps to improve conditions as it waits for the lawsuit to proceed.

Last year, it helped draft a bill that would have forced communities to issue decisions on permit applications within 20 days or risk sacrificing the permit fees. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Kenneth Carter, D-North Kingstown, died in the House Corporations Committee.

This session, Sen. Roger R. Badeau, D-Woonsocket, filed a similar bill that would give communities 45 days to decide on applications before losing a portion of the fees.

Under current law, cities and towns have 15 days to “examine” applications — a process that involves scrutinizing the potential environmental consequences of a development, compliance with fire safety regulations and a range of potential quality of life impacts. There is no deadline for issuing a decision.

“It’s just not logical,” said Kelly M. Coates, senior vice president of Carpionato Properties, who said small building departments in Rhode Island are asked to review increasingly complex proposals with few resources or personnel. “The complication of the plans increases,” he said, “the staff in the building departments does not.”

bgedan@projo.com