Here’s how Denver’s new permitting office, with its ‘shot clock’ and refunds, works

The new Denver Permitting Office released by Mayor Mike Johnston in April got up and running in mid-May according to the city although not all components of it are as of now in place The office s mandate is to speed up the entitlement process and improve customer organization for applicants those getting permits to build new structures or build out existing spaces around the city At an April news conference Johnston touted a -day shot clock saying plans and permits would be approved within that time and pledged refunds of up to on fees if the city failed to do so Johnston didn t provide specifics at the time on how the days would be calculated or when refunds would be made But last week DPO Director Jill Jennings Golich shared documents with BusinessDen the full text can be discovered here and here on each of those points The days is purely city time she noted But that can be somewhat complicated especially since a great number of projects require multiple permits issued by different city agencies Jennings Golich encouraged applicants to submit plans simultaneously for each of the permits they re applying for for simplicity s sake Inevitably there will be specific overlap in the building permit process An applicant may be redoing its plumbing plans while the city is reviewing a separate electrical permit for example In instances such as those as long as the city is still reviewing a component of the overall building plans the -day clock will be ticking even if the applicant is working on other permits related to the project according to the city Any time that application is with a city discipline we re counting it as a city day reported Robert Peek a DPO official The -day pledge doesn t apply to subdivision plats concept plans large enhancement reviews or infrastructure master plans In terms of refunds when the -day deadline is missed Jennings Golich will initially review the application checking its quality and the responses given by the city Her account will be completed within days DPO s Executive Permitting Committee will then review the document and determine whether the delay was attributable to the city due to things such as internal city processes or city review time according to the DPO documents If the city is at fault the applicant is eligible for a refund Denver says if it can t process construction permits in roughly days the city will refund developers fees This file is auto-generated function d l use strict l querySelector d addEventListener undefined typeof URL d wp d wp d wp receiveEmbedMessage d wp receiveEmbedMessage function e var t e input if t t secret t message t value a-zA-Z - test t secret for var s r n a l querySelectorAll 'iframe data-secret ' t secret ' ' o l querySelectorAll 'blockquote data-secret ' t secret ' ' c new RegExp https i i i