Housing Permitting Strike Team and fast-track catalog

The problem

A builder can wait months for a permit while the project bleeds money — and those delays get baked into the price of every home. Residents never see the permit office, but they feel it in the rent.

The plan

A Housing Permitting Strike Team will be formed within the first 100 days to shepherd housing applications through review, and the city will publish validated completeness guidance so applicants know exactly what a clean application requires.

A fast-track catalog of pre-approved plans will let straightforward projects skip the line — cutting both the calendar time and the uncertainty that drives up costs.

How you’ll know it’s working

• Median days from application to permit for housing projects
• Share of applications cleared on first submission
• Fast-track catalog of pre-approved plans published
• Housing projects completed faster than the pre-strike-team baseline

From the Blueprint

• Owner: Planning & Development Services, with a standing team spanning plan review, fire, utilities, transportation, and legal.
• Digital intake uses checklist-driven submittals with a remote permitting API; status is visible to applicants and the public.
• Published ‘Housing Fast Track’ checklists cover ADUs, duplexes, and small multifamily projects.
• Weekly interdepartmental reviews log every decision; completeness checks run against a fixed timeline.
• Phase 1 (days 0–60): team formed and checklists published. Phase 2 (days 60–180): first fast-track permits issued.
• KPIs: median days to first review, median days from submittal to permit, and re-review cycles.