Honolulu’s Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) continues to implement new software and systems to speed up and modernize its permitting processes, which have historically moved at the speed of sludge. With assistance from a pilot project incorporating artificial intelligence, DPP’s backlog of permit applications waiting for pre-screening has now been eliminated, the city reports.

The overall time for permit processing is still too slow, though: six months for residential and 12 months for commercial permits. Mark your calendars: “Within a year’s time, residential will come down substantially, down to two to four weeks,” DPP Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna says.