Mayor Launches Task Force To Streamline Permits. CRE Says It's Long Overdue

Contractors and developers in Philadelphia are open to anything that simplifies how, and how quickly, they can get approved for zoning and permits.

But they aren’t putting much stock in the mayor’s promises to do so, several real estate execs told Bisnow.

Permit applicants currently work through an inefficient combination of online, mail and in-person processes to get approvals. Timelines can stretch for months, and requests sometimes slip through the cracks. 

There is some consensus that understaffing at the city is the main culprit.

On Monday, the Office of Property Assessment will testify to request a budget to fill its empty clerical and evaluator roles. It says the office is understaffed by 22%.

Mayor Cherelle Parker also sent out an executive order on April 15 meant to cut up red tape for local businesses. The order renamed the Office of Business Services to the Mayor’s Business Action Team and charged that team with creating a separate unit “to accelerate the resolution of challenges with City permits, licenses, taxes and payments,” Alba Martinez, the city's commerce director, said in the announcement of the executive order.

That unit is set to be launched within about two weeks, but CRE will have to wait longer to see a benefit, as the first cohort of projects being tackled revolve around steps needed to open a food business, Karen Fegely, the city’s deputy commerce director, told Bisnow.

“However, the Administration is committed to making it easier to do business across the board and is taking every opportunity to do so, including expanding our Permit Navigator tool,” Fegely said.

Action is welcome, area contractors and developers said, because the difference between the city of Philadelphia and surrounding regions is stark.

“Everything outside Philly's easier, three times easier,” said George Lawrence, owner of GJL Construction. 

Permits, whether for zoning, development or plumbing, often take about three months to be approved, he said, and there isn’t good communication about where applications stand.

“Philly's a big city. I get it. But I call them a lot to see where I'm at,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence said not only are permits approved faster in places like Montgomery County, but any changes outer counties make as they process permits are always processed once. In Philadelphia, however, there are often cancellations or amendments made.

Some developers kill their projects altogether because they are so often delayed by the Licenses & Inspections Department, said Rammy Dongel, owner and founder at Ken Group, a local development multifamily developer. Otherwise, groups like his just have to eat the cost of those delays.

“We cannot tell our lenders, ‘Oh we're behind on zoning and so let's not pay this month,’ you know, doesn't work that way,” Dongel said. “So if they can speed up this process that would be really, really good.”

Ken Group is trying to zone and build nine apartments in West Philadelphia with partners, but the project has been pushed down the line by four months, Dongel said. And that's about average for the zoning or rezoning side, which still requires in-person and mailed applications.

“Maybe hire more people, I guess, in-office, because I always hear they're short-staffed. That's the biggest excuse I hear whenever I call L&I,” he said.

A budget presentation last month showed that the department is only 75% staffed, and inspectors are dealing with record-high permits at about 989 each, on average, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

City Council recommended in its budget two weeks ago that L&I retain a greater part of its annual revenue, some $87M last year, in order to address staffing up the department. But Parker has left funding unchanged, despite pledging support to help staff up the L&I offices.

The Office of Property Assessment had no new hires from July through December, a prepared statement for the office’s April 29 hearing at City Council shows. The office will request to have 225 positions total, the same as last year, as it hopes to get staffing up to 85% this year.

Modernizing the system would also go a long way, such as allowing applicants to pay by credit card. Right now, all businesses must send a check to City Hall. Moving the city's permits to all be processed online would also smooth the operation. Dongel praised the city’s introduction of an online permitting system called eCLIPSE in 2020, which has helped approve smaller permits more quickly, “but they could still do better,” he said.

He said the property assessment office is the most byzantine.

“I have to go in and remind them” to get a tax assessment done, he said. “They're backed out with it for a very long time.”