Assessing development permitting workflows: A practical guide for city leaders

This article explores how city leaders can assess development permitting workflows to identify delays, improve coordination and strengthen service delivery.

For city managers and planning and community development directors, development permitting is more than an administrative function. It is a core service that reflects a city’s commitment to economic vitality and the effective implementation of adopted plans and policies. When permitting workflows and timelines are unclear, outdated or inefficient, the impacts are felt well beyond the permit counter, often showing up as applicant complaints, missed development timelines or repeated questions from elected officials.

Process inefficiencies can slow the completion of housing and other economic development initiatives, erode applicant and resident confidence, and make policy goals harder to achieve. A structured assessment of development permitting workflows is an effective step city leadership can take to improve performance and effectiveness across planning, land use and building permit operations.

Understanding your current development permitting workflow

Current systems are rarely the result of deliberate, enterprise-wide design. Permitting workflows and processes typically evolve over time, often in response to staffing changes, technology upgrades or new regulations and codes — and frequently a combination of all three. For directors and senior managers, understanding where delays occur, why certain projects stall and how staff time is actually being spent can provide valuable insight into where and how to initiate improvements.

Below are a few considerations from Baker Tilly’s development permitting process review professionals to help you begin reforming your process, improve internal effectiveness and enhance customer satisfaction.

• Taking an end-to-end view of the workflow is often most beneficial. However, if time or budget constraints do not allow for a comprehensive assessment, focusing on one or more key areas of concern can still produce meaningful results. Even targeted reviews can improve customer satisfaction and may reduce processing times.
• The clarity gained from a focused or end-to-end review can strengthen accountability and improve process predictability, while also supporting an environment that is responsive to the needs of the development community and aligned with regulatory and internal workflows.