Residential building permits in Dallas saw a sharp drop in turnaround times in March, a sign that efforts on the single-family front are gaining traction and that improvements on the commercial side are next in order.
Single-family permit applications had their steepest drop in approval time this year, falling from 77 median days in January to just 14 median days in March, a roughly 80% decrease in issuance time year-to-date, according to data from the City’s residential permit activity dashboard.
Between January and February 2023, Dallas’ building permit department — the Development Services Department (DSD) — needed a median of 15 calendar days to issue a residential building permit. Prior to October 2022, the median time it took DSD to issue a single-family permit was 57 days, dashboard data shows.
The consecutive monthly decreases in DSD’s 2023 issuance times show that Development Services is making some headway on lowering its initial review and issuance times as well as better managing application demand — despite the Development Services Department’s limited staff resources.
Problems with DSD’s permitting process existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic but really erupted in 2020 after the Department transitioned to an online system. Now, after three years, DSD finally seems to be getting a grip on the situation.
In total, 194 single-family permit applications were submitted to DSD in March, with 226 receiving approvals during the month. A breakdown of March shows that 156 were submitted in 2023, while 70 were submitted in a prior year, permit data shows.
DSD’s “median issued days category” is calculated based on the application’s time spent with staff and applicants and between both the review stage and the post-review stage, according to the City’s methodology stated on the dashboard.
“The clock starts when the initial fees have been paid and the clock ends when the applicant is issued the approved plans,” the residential permit dashboard says.
Of the nearly 200 permits submitted in March, 57% were issued within a median of six days, and 89% were completed within DSD’s 15-day initial review window. Thirty-five applications were submitted to DSD on paper and were not factored into March’s activity analysis.
While the Development Services Department has made some progress on lowering residential permit times in 2023, DSD still has much more work to complete on the commercial side of permitting, where local developers are still reporting long approval times.
At a recent Economic Development Committee (EDC) meeting, Dallas’ Chief Building Official and DSD Director Andrew Espinoza admitted more work was needed to maintain low turnaround times and that additional activity on the commercial side of permitting was in the works.