An administrative error will cost Dallas millions of dollars, city staff told council members earlier this week.
The City of Dallas will miss out on $8.6 million in permitting fees after a staff member inadvertently dropped the cost for a commercial remodel permit instead of increasing it. As long as the error remains in place, Dallas is forgoing $1.1 million every month, said Catherine Lee, assistant director at the Dallas Planning and Development Department.
On Monday, the Economic Development Committee unanimously approved a request to update the permit fee structure for commercial remodels to the previous fee plus an additional 33% to account for inflation. No council members raised concerns about the costly error during Monday’s committee meeting.
Lee says “proactive measures” were taken once the issue was recognized, per WFAA. To help compensate for the revenue shortfall in the financial year 2025, the planning department has paused hiring for non-inspector roles, delayed vehicle replacement, cut overtime, and frozen travel and training.
Permitting issues have plagued the city. In 2019, the turnaround time for building permits was roughly three days. During the pandemic, wait times exploded, surpassing nine months at times.
While wait times have reduced considerably, they remain far higher than in the pre-pandemic period.
Last year, the city was derided after almost 70 employees from the Development Services Department were vacated from an office at 7800 N Stemmons Fwy. Ironically, the department responsible for issuing permits had not satisfied the requirements themselves, promoting the hasty exit.
Late last month, The Dallas Express reported that the City of Dallas plans to roll out a new permitting system that will be more accessible, efficient, and transparent. The new cloud-based system, DallasNow, is meant to centralize development review services once it launches.