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Recent upgrades to Portland’s Bureau of Development Services are meant to give customers new insights into how long it’ll take for commercial building and facility permits to be issued.

Over 2,000 commercial permits are submitted to BDS annually, along with upward of 3,000 residential building permits. The city’s permit review process has often drawn criticism for its long leads. As a result, the bureau launched the Permit Metric Dashboard last year to give customers a sense of what to expect for a timetable when applying.

The dashboard gives a 20-business-day snapshot of how long each review step takes, from application submittal to the first scan to permit setup and approval to issue (awaiting final payments by the applicant) 鈥� and finally to the permit issuance.

With the recent upgrades, customers not only can see the average time needed for the city’s review staff to complete each stage but also how long it takes for the other required city bureaus like the Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) and Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) to make their approvals. Additionally, how much time a permit, on average, is within the hands of city staff for review versus the applicant for responses to questions.

The dashboard now also breakdowns the type of work the permit is for, from addition, alteration, and new construction. A recent 20-business-day span showed that, on average, it is taking 251 days for commercial new construction permits to reach the final review once intake fees are paid. During that period, around 30 days on average, the permit is under review with the city review staff and bureaus. The rest of the time, it is in the hands of the applicant.

A spokesperson for BDS said the new indicator illustrates the 鈥減ermitting is a partnership鈥� role that customers play in getting permits issued in a timely manner.

The data in the dashboard is updated every Monday morning. So far this year, 1,152 commercial permits have been set up, and 426 finalized.