2020/2021 Special Committee on Assessing the City’s Building and Development Permitting Processes

Background

• The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated workplace shutdowns seriously disrupted the City’s building and development permit review processes, along with many other City functions, as City government offices were closed for an extended period of time and employees worked from home. As distribution of the COVID vaccines has grown and a larger percentage of the population has become partially or fully vaccinated, the local and national economies have begun to rebound and development activities are gaining momentum. It appears, however, that the City’s building and development permitting activities are not recovering at the same pace as overall economic activity, and complaints are being received about delays in City review and permitting processes slowing private development activities.

Charge

• The Special Committee is charged to meet as often as it deems necessary in order to gather information and statistics about City permitting activities; take testimony from representatives of the building and land development industries about the City’s processes; interview City personnel involved in the building and development permitting functions; and take such other actions as may be necessary to determine if those permitting functions could be improved or speeded up to meet the private sector’s needs and expectations and, if so, how that could be accomplished. The Special Committee shall summarize its findings and develop recommendations for consideration by the full City Council in their policy and budgetary roles.

Archived Meetings