Abbott Addresses Broadnax’s Permit Troubles

Governor Greg Abbott wants Dallas’ building permit process to move at the “speed of business.”

Abbott proposed a unique solution to address Dallas’ slow building permit process at his recent State of the State address to local Dallas business leaders.

The governor spent most of his State of the State address championing Texas’ booming economy and outlining his legislative priorities, but he also outlined a plan to unify each municipality’s building permit process under a statewide process that local building permit departments would be required to comply with.

“Depending upon what city you’re in, the permitting process can take from 30 days to 30 months,” Governor Abbott said during a Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC) luncheon on Wednesday attended by The Dallas Express.

“[If] you’re holding a piece of property for 30 months, incapable of building on it because you lack a permit, that’s costing you a lot of money,” he said.

The difficulties surrounding slow permitting times have become such a burden to the development community that they were recently highlighted during a Dallas Builders Association (DBA) panel discussion with development services directors representing Dallas, Irving, Celina, and Denton.

“It has been frustrating with builders and developers almost playing, as I’ve characterized it, ‘infrastructure roulette,’ … because some will get caught and land on bankruptcy, and others will get through [the building permit process] and not have any issues,” said DBA Executive Director Phil Crone during the panel.

Under Governor Abbott’s unified approach, a roughly 30-day presumption will be granted by the state to ensure each municipality maintains an accelerated building permit process.

Having only one permitting process that builders and development leaders need to know and comply with “will dramatically lower the cost of doing business, allow businesses to focus on being more competitive, and to move product out in a quicker period of time,” Abbott said.

For Abbott’s plan to come to fruition, he must first get it passed at the 88th Texas Legislative Session, which he said is one of his top priorities.

“It would be such a game changer and magnet for people coming into the State of Texas, as well as for businesses to grow here in the state,” Abbott said. “It’s important for businesses to be able to move at the speed of business. And that’s what this regulatory reform does.”