The City of Dallas managed to improve its median turnaround times for single-family permits last year, but can the Development Services Department maintain the same momentum in 2024?
DSD kicked off this year with 144 submissions for single-family permits in queue while issuing 191 new single-family permits, a slight decrease in monthly submissions but an uptick in issuances, according to the latest data from the department’s residential permit activity dashboard (RPAD).
The median time needed to issue a new single-family permit in January 2024 was 10 days, a four-day increase compared to the month prior but a 68-day decrease compared to the first month of 2023.
If the customer did not need to make adjustments to their application, then DSD was able to issue a new single-family permit in just four median days.
Despite the slight overall increase in turnaround time during the month, DSD was able to perform 100% of its initial reviews in under 15 days, which is the department’s stated goal.
DSD currently has 193 active permits in its queue, according to RPAD data. About 237 in-queue permits are listed as inactive, meaning the permit is currently sitting with the applicant and has not seen activity in the last 90 days. There were also 46 permits submitted via paper that were not included in any activity analysis.
While DSD has made strides to accelerate single-family permit times over the past two years, that same level of attention has only recently been directed toward commercial permits, as reported by The Dallas Express.
DSD was originally scheduled to demo its new commercial permit activity dashboard (CPAD) to Dallas City Council members in January, with a tentative data rollout planned in the next two months. However, the rollout of the dashboard has been delayed.
“I didn’t feel those numbers are there yet. So, we probably will be looking in a month or couple of months to bring in the commercial dashboard as well,” Assistant City Manager Majed Al-Ghafry told Dallas’ Economic Development Committee during its January 9 meeting.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, DSD has purportedly been plagued by various inefficiencies and periodic permitting backlogs under the leadership of City Manager T.C. Broadnax.
