Dallas unveils new same-day single-family permit program

It may soon be possible in Dallas to get permits for a new single family home the same day you apply.

That’s the promise of the city’s new Rapid Single-Family VIP Program, or “RSVP,” which aims to expedite the permitting process that has been bogged down for the past two years.

Under this new program, theDallas Development Services Department will work directly with permit applicants — by appointment only — to review plans, allowing the city to issue new single-family permits on the same day, according to a service bulletin released by the department.

“We have implemented multiple initiatives in the last few months. This is one of the programs we think is going to take off,” said Dallas Assistant Director and Deputy Chief Building Official James Metzgar.

Under the program, city staff will partner with the applicant to perform a joint review of the designs and documentation of the project, which must be a new single-family home with a maximum of three stories and 3,000 square feet, and must not be in a special overlay zoning district. Provided the submittal meets the minimum building and zoning standards, the city aims to issue the permit on the same day.

The review time will cost the applicant $200 per hour. Reviews will be done by appointment only, and the minimum time that can be reserved is two hours, so each application will cost at least $400.

Applicants are able to request a partial permit approval if any review comments are left unresolved in discussion with city staff. With partial approval, applicants can carry out site development, utility installation, and foundation pouring while any necessary corrections are resubmitted, though partial approvals will not authorize vertical construction.

The RSVP program is the latest effort to resolve the city’s ongoing problem of building-permitting delays, which has forced builders and developers to wait as long as 40 days for word back on a permit application.

Metzgar has blamed that lag mainly on the backlog of permit applications that built up when the COVID-19 pandemic forced much of the city’s staff out of the office — and the technical difficulties that resulted.

“When COVID took place, a lot of staff were sent home and there were just a select few working from home and working in the office,” Metzgar said. “They worked with software that shouldn’t have gone live. No training or customization at the time.”

Unfortunately, that slowdown in processing coincided with a boom in the housing market, resulting in a surge of applications for single family homes as developers rushed to satisfy demand.

“It could be an average of 18 to 30 projects uploaded or applied for that night,” said Metzgar.

This high volume of unanswered permit submissions has contributed to a significant fall in single-family applications filed in the city compared to last year.

Andrew Espizona, the city’s new Chief Building Official, said his department is working to redeem itself.

“We understand that as a team we’ve fallen short,” he said. “When we encountered COVID, we were not very well prepared. I can honestly say our team is working very hard. We’re moving in that direction, and I can look back on the last 100 days and say we’re so much better.”

Indeed, city data shows that the number of permits issued in Dallas in July went up 15 percent, from 1771 in June to 2050 in July.

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