The mayor of Dallas says he is forming a working group to reduce bureaucracy in the city's permit process. Eric Johnson says the city has been "inundated" with complaints about the process from people seeking permits for new construction or home remodels over the past two years.
"Time's up. Enough's enough," Johnson said. "Dallas deserves better."
Councilwoman Paula Blackmon will chair the committee.
"Development Services is incredibly understaffed, underpaid and working with outdated technology," Blackmon said. "Residential permits are sitting in pre-screening time for six weeks. Six weeks."
She said the process will last even longer if regulators have questions about a permit.
Johnson said wait times and lack of communication could ultimately harm the city's economy and prompt builders to look at other cities for work.
"When you have this many people who've interfaced with your system telling you it was a terrible experience, what business in the world ignore that type of feedback and say, 'They're just being picky'? That's a problem," Johnson said.
The working group will include people who have worked in the private sector and be co-chaired by Macy Davis. Davis is a public policy consultant.
"This is complicated. It's a complicated operational problem, but we finally have the resources and the team in place," Davis said. "We can get this done."
Johnson said the process will start with feedback about the current system and specifics about how other cities' permitting processes have worked.
"This has everything to do with the competitiveness of our city," Johnson said. "I'm very concerned at this point, given how much I've heard about this issue for the past two years, that we are actually falling behind in the competition with our suburbs and other cities around the country for very valuable projects and for overall customer service satisfaction when dealing with city government."
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