Dallas’ Development Services Department, often the subject of criticism over its building permitting process, has implemented some changes in a bid to improve communication between the City and the public.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, North Texas has been enjoying a development boom and significant population growth, but Dallas suburbs like Denton, McKinney, Frisco, Plano, and Fort Worth have seen most of the benefits. Developers have reportedly shown less interest in Dallas — which actually lost residents in recent years — due to stringent regulations and a slow permitting process that make the city more difficult to build in.
Director Andrew Espinoza has modified many aspects of the Development Services Department (DSD) since taking over in the summer of 2022. One of his focuses has been facilitating department transparency and communication between customers and local building officials.
DSD now publishes a performance chart that details the department’s monthly activity and goals across a number of different metrics. Some of the metrics listed in DSD’s Performance Goals FY 2022-2023 include the number of commercial and residential plan reviews submitted each month, the average number of days for initial review, and the average number of days for prescreen completeness review, among others.
In addition to its list of performance goals, the department also provides updates through its monthly newsletters, which typically include the latest residential and commercial permit data, information on new initiatives and partnerships, and details about future departmental activities.
The City’s Residential Permit Activity Dashboard (RPAD), designed by the City’s Office of Data Analytics and Business Intelligence, is another tool that has been deployed to improve building permit transparency in Dallas. The RPAD tracks monthly single-family permit activity.
Although DSD has taken steps to improve communication and transparency, more work is still needed in order to make Dallas a prime hub for development in North Texas. Despite chipping away at the backlog that plagued Dallas’ residential side of development, DSD has been pressed to improve operations on the commercial side of permitting, where problems still linger.
DSD is currently working with the Office of Data Analytics and Business Intelligence to develop a Commercial Permit Activity Dashboard (CPAD), which would function similarly to the RPAD, except that it would track commercial permit activity in Dallas.
Espinoza previously told The Dallas Express the CPAD would be available before the end of 2023. However, DSD has not provided any update on the dashboard’s progress or if the project is still on track for an end-of-year release.