Portland’s building permit process remains riddled with time-consuming delays, shoddy customer service and a conspicuous lack of accountability, according to a city audit released Tuesday.
Permit reviews are too slow. Customers complaints are scuttled or pile up. And a fragmented system makes matters worse.
Ultimately, these problems could threaten the city’s economic recovery as it seeks to pull itself from the brink of the coronavirus pandemic, the audit concluded.
“The city’s review process makes it harder to build housing and conduct business here,” said City Auditor Mary Hull Caballero.
According to the report, initial reviews for commercial and residential permits alike fell far short of the city’s established benchmarks for timeliness every fiscal year between 2015 and 2019.
Permits for new construction projects, in particular, rarely received a timely first review. Only 7% of residential projects did in 2019. For commercial projects, it was 27%. Proposals to modify existing buildings, while also not handled on time often enough, were more often reviewed by the deadline.
“This is especially noteworthy in light of the city’s policy goal to increase housing supply,” the report noted.
Auditors also found Portland does not track two other building permit service areas commonly measured by other municipalities and considered industry standards: quality and customer services.
Meanwhile, the city fails to follow its own policies for permit seekers who complain or object to review delays, deepening what the report describes as an “[in]equitable treatment of customers.”
“Those with resources and connections can navigate the city’s problematic system better than novices,” the audit claims.
Problems with Portland’s building permit process are further exacerbated by a fragmented system that no one agency or individual oversees, according to the report.
Seven bureaus — building services, housing, parks and recreation, environmental services, water, fire and transportation — and the City Council are all responsible for plan reviews.
The audit recommends the Bureau of Development Services, which oversees the vast majority of city permits, act as a coordinator between all permitting bureaus and oversee a system for customer complaints.
It also suggests the city commissioner who oversees the development services bureau, currently Dan Ryan, seek to improve customer service and hold other permitting bureaus accountable for results.
In a March 18 letter to the city auditor, Ryan and development services bureau director Rebecca Esau, wrote they would pursue those recommendations. They also wrote that they have taken additional steps to enhance the permitting process as well.
Among them: major upgrades to the city’s permitting software programs, the launch of an online portal to allow digital permit applications and payments and creation of a permitting task force to streamline the overall process.
-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632
Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com
Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh
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