Mayor Mike Johnston signed his first executive order on Monday, establishing a new Denver Permitting Office. The three-person team in the Mayor’s Office will try to speed up permitting approvals for commercial and multifamily residential construction.
The move is a response to years of gripes from developers, who have faced sluggish permitting — and, in some cases, have abandoned Denver for surrounding cities.
Those delays cost developers tens of thousands of dollars, Johnston said.
“Business as usual is over,” Community Planning and Development head Manish Kumar said at the executive order signing. “Work is about to begin.”
Denver’s slow permitting process was a major talking point in the last mayoral election. And while the city has hit its goals of speeding up permitting by 30 percent, Johnston said the pace is still too slow.
The city’s permitting process is meant to ensure that construction projects comply with laws and regulations for everything from fire safety to sustainability requirements.
The new office has big goals.
Existing city agencies will continue to issue permits, and developers will still submit proposals through the city’s permitting website.
But the mayor’s new permitting team will be tasked with overhauling the city’s planning process and streamlining how various city departments work together. It has already created a “one-stop shop” online for people submitting projects to the city’s planning departments.
Under Johnston’s order, the city must approve permit applications within 180 days – and that includes both site plans and building permits, assuming they are submitted at the same time.
For comparison, large commercial projects are currently taking an average of 260 days to complete. For large residential projects, reviews take an average of 271 days. And the city notes some projects have taken more than two years.
If the planning department hasn’t made a decision within 180 days, the developer can appeal to the new permitting office. If the appeal takes more than 30 days, the city will refund up to $10,000 in permitting costs per project.
The new permitting office pledges the city will respond to all messages related to new developments within two business days – which would be a substantial improvement from the months-long delays some developers said they have faced.
Each new project will be assigned a “project champion” from one of the permitting teams. Champions will guide new developments through the often complicated process of getting approval from multiple departments.
The hope is the changes will speed up permitting and make the process more predictable and easier to navigate.
What we know about the new permitting office
The new office, which launches May 1, will oversee and coordinate the permitting process across multiple departments, including Community Planning and Development, the Denver Fire Department, Parks and Recreation, Public Safety and the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.
The permitting office will be led by Jill Jennings Golich, who will report directly to the mayor.
“We want to be a top-tier city to do business with,” she said.
Jennings Golich has served as deputy director of Community Planning and Development since 2021. She also served in the role from 2014 to 2019, working for a short stint in Adams County government in between.
She will oversee two other employees and coordinate with over 280 city staffers in departments citywide.
The new office has no budget this year, and the staffing is coming from Community Planning and Development.
The city does not have an estimate for how much growth or revenue the new efficiencies could create.
But in a city with flagging sales tax revenue, Johnston hopes efforts like this make Denver more business-friendly.
