How Denver plans to fix its slow building permit process
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
Mayor Mike Johnston wants to overhaul the city's building department, which has struggled for years to improve its lengthy permit-approval process.
- But how quickly he can do it remains an open question months after he took office.
Why it matters: The slow permitting problem plaguing developers and residents has driven out homebuilders at a time when evictions are at record highs and the city's in the midst of a stubborn affordable housing crisis.
What they're saying: "Right now, we see more and more folks who say, 'I'd rather build anywhere other than Denver,'" Johnston said at an Axios Denver event in early November.
- That's "part of the reason why the housing costs are going through the roof," he said. "We're not building enough units at affordable rates to keep up with that demand — and that also is directly linked to our homeless population."
Context: A surge of new housing projects coupled with a shortage of workers in the city's building department has led to a major building permit pileup in recent years.
- Under former director Laura Aldrete, who left in August, the city took steps to reduce plan review times, including hiring and training more staff and working with a third-party contractor to help review permits — but challenges have persisted.
By the numbers: Over the last month, the average permit approval time for major commercial projects, like multi-family buildings, was 233 days, CPD data shows. That includes the time it takes for revisions and for the city to review.
- For major residential projects, including new homes, approvals took an average of 250 days.
- Over the last 90 days, the city recorded 330 major residential projects under "initial review" and nearly 500 plans under review for major commercial developments.
What's next: Johnston said his administration is working to handpick a new director for the city's Community Planning and Development Department to cut approval times "in half."
- To further his effort, he's using $365,000 from the 2024 budget to hire three full-time employees who will help review permits specially for affordable housing projects.
- He's also allocating $200,000 to launch the city's "first-ever" attempt to study ways to "reform" the permitting and zoning process.
Of note: Residential plan review times have been "steadily declining" since they peaked in the fall of 2022, CPD spokesperson Alexandra Foster told Axios.
- Staff recently "cleared their backlog" for single-family and duplex projects, Foster said, which brought down the average wait time for residential plan reviews from 12-15 weeks in September 2022 to roughly 2-4 weeks this year.
What we're watching: Colorado voters passed a measure in 2022 that gives cities access to state dollars if they approve permits for new affordable housing developments within 90 days.
- Johnston told Axios Denver his goal is to achieve that 90-day mark for affordable units "in the next six months."