Editorial: Charging ahead at Department of Planning and Permitting

Finding a clearer path through the brambles of the city’s permitting system was, without a doubt, on the top of the agenda when Mayor Rick Blangiardi was a candidate for his first public office. Of course, once elected, the new mayor found out that it was going to be even harder than expected.

Part of the problem, it now appears, was a lack of agreement about how to tackle it. Blangiardi, the one-time football player, went with a frontal assault, following the resignation of Dean Uchida, the former director of the Department of Planning and Permitting.

Acting Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna is moving ahead with the first step. A vendor will be chosen to install a new automated system designed to cut the approval process by about three months. The solicitation for vendor bids ended Friday, and officials want the system installed and in use by the end of this month. So does the public.

Blangiardi has said he believes the problems can be addressed with in-house staff and leadership. It is good to see the process at least beginning that way, rather than spending time and money on consultants and side issues.

The automated system is geared mainly to deal with the prescreening of permit applications. This essentially means scanning for basic omissions of application data or other, easily discoverable errors. It’s important to remedy what had been a five-month logjam at this entry point; DPP is promising a reduction to a week to 10 days at this step.

But there also is cause for strategically staffing up the department in order to truly finish the job. After prescreening, problems will take experienced staff to check for adherence to codes and ordinances, and there are many vacancies that will need to be filled.

Permitting problems, including prescreening that “slows down the permitting review process before it even starts,” were identified in a 2020 city audit. Additional work is now piled on DPP’s plate, such as short-term rentals management and the planned overhaul of the land-use ordinance. Still, it won’t do to lose sight of the agency’s core permitting role.

The measure of success will be whether the city actually can rebuild its permitting system into something that functions reasonably well. But it is at least encouraging that officials are charging ahead, with urgency.