The city of Cleveland is looking to improve government efficiency with an overhaul to its construction permitting process.
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb signed an executive order outlining a new, modern process that removes barriers and confusion for permit applicants for projects of all sizes. The overhaul process will be a collaboration between the mayor’s office and leaders from the departments of building and housing, city planning, and information technology services.
“Our existing permitting process is hard to navigate and makes it unnecessarily difficult to build and redevelop projects in the city,” said Mayor Bibb. “This executive order seeks to overhaul that process, improve communication, and greatly reduce the time it takes to get shovels in the ground. Whether you are building a new garage or an apartment complex, the process should be clear and easy to navigate.”
The mayor’s office explained that Cleveland’s current system for initiating a development project allows for multiple points of entry. Being able to start the process with different city departments and offices often results in delays and inefficiencies. Under the executive order, the permitting process will always begin with the Department of Building and Housing. For more complex projects, the city will also hold pre-development meetings with the appropriate departments to help developers anticipate requirements and ensure the right approvals can be completed at the right time.
The city is also working to increase staff and break down silos to make permitting more efficient across departments. To support this work, technology will be used more consistently to make applications easy to track as they progress, both internally and externally. The city is specifically looking at an upgraded version of its current Accela platform used to manage the permitting process. The city expects to have technology changes implemented by the end of the first quarter of 2025, with additional iterative changes happening throughout the year.
“When this overhaul is complete, applications can be tracked throughout the process just like tracking a package,” said Cleveland’s Director of Building and Housing, Sally Martin O’Toole. “This is a game changer for applicants and for staff, helping us provide accurate and timely support to residents and builders.”
The city highlighted three key goals of the permitting process project:
- Predictability: All permitting applicants will know what permits are necessary, what information they will need to apply for these permits, who will need to review their application, and roughly how long it will take to get approved.
- Visibility: The public and city staff across departments will be able to check online to see where a project is in the permitting process, what comments have been made and by whom, and what steps remain to get a permit.
- Efficiency: By implementing process changes, technology upgrades, increasing review staff as needed, and improving cross-departmental communication, overall time from starting the process to starting construction will be decreased.
Before undertaking the permitting process overhaul, the city commissioned a third-party comprehensive review and analysis. Outside consultants looked at internal processes and procedures, conducted interviews with staff and a wide range of permit applicants, developed workflow process maps, and held a three-day process improvement workshop with frontline employees, supervisors and managers.
