Dive brief:
- Pittsburgh is reforming its permitting processes, starting with efforts to streamline how projects enter the city’s permitting system.
- Mayor Corey O’Connor on Wednesday announced progress on a series of modernization efforts he decreed in an earlier executive order, including virtual inspections, permit trackers and an EZ permit “fast track” for several types of regular residential and commercial permits. EZ Permits is a pilot program to create a faster permitting path for common, low-risk work.
- “This first phase of improvements will help applicants spend less time waiting and more time doing projects,” O’Connor said in a press release. “People doing routine home improvements used to wait more than a week to get their permit and now they will get that permit in as little as one business day.”
Diving knowledge:
As housing needs grow, cities across the country are exploring efforts to update permitting processes to speed development.
Pittsburgh’s planning commission in July approved a package of zoning amendments aimed at modernizing the city’s zoning code for residents and small businesses, the mayor’s office said.
Pittsburgh lacks roughly 11,000 units of affordable housing for the city’s lowest-income residents, according to estimates. It also has around 20,000 empty homes, more than 15% of its total housing stock, among the highest in the country.
The city’s new EZ permit initiative targets residential and commercial permit types that do not require a design review for one-day approval. Eligible residential projects may include replacing windows or doors, roofing, removing a non-load-bearing wall, and installing or replacing siding.
Virtual city inspections are available for similar projects, such as deck or porch repairs, electrical and mechanical projects, and demolitions.
The city also launched a permit tracker in July that allows applicants to monitor their applications, the mayor’s office said.
The next phases of the mayor’s permit reform plan are aimed at the review, inspection and finalization stages.
“Pittsburgh must grow,” declared O’Connor’s Jan. 6 executive order. “We need to make it easier to build new homes, revitalize our business districts and bring new amenities to our communities.”
