Building Permits

Sprawl

Colorado Erases Local Growth Limits

Colorado legislators passed a law earlier this year that preempts local limits on the number of building permits issued every year.

August 8, 2023 - The Denver Post

Granny Flat

Pre-Approved ADUs Now Available in Sacramento

The city of Sacramento is making it easier to develop accessory dwelling units.

January 25, 2023 - CBS Sacramento

Rendering of white cottage-style ADU

Raleigh Launches Pre-Approved ‘ADU Gallery’

The city wants to streamline the process and lower construction costs for accessory dwelling units in order to boost the city’s housing supply without dramatically altering neighborhoods.

December 20, 2022 - WUNC

A large group of glass covered skyscrapers rises above the Hudson River in Manhattan, with several new buildings under construction visible too.

Scandal: Large-Scale Developments Approved Without Architect's Involvement

A New York Times investigation has revealed evidence of a development company repeatedly misleading the New York City Department of Buildings.

June 14, 2022 - The New York Times

Back Yard

With Regulations Loosened, Granny Flat Construction Soars in California

Less restrictive permit laws and pre-fabricated, pre-approved building options are spurring more homeowners to build backyard additions.

April 9, 2021 - Bloomberg CityLab

Multi-Tenant Housing

Searching for a Path to Legalized Rooming Houses

Toronto could legalize rooming houses, also known as multi-tenant or lodging houses, in an effort to bring the city's many unpermitted examples of this low-income affordable housing type up to humane standards of health and safety.

November 18, 2020 - Yahoo News via Toronto Star

Chicago, Illinois

Kanye West Makes More Permitting Trouble in Chicago

Kanye West is renovating his childhood home on the South Side of Chicago, but hasn't always had the permits to do the work until after the fact.

May 19, 2020 - Chicago Tribune

CEQA Droput

Kanye West's Unpermitted Vision for Housing Utopia Has Been Demolished

Kanye had 45 days to submit plans for the unpermitted buildings built on his property in Calabasas, California. Instead, the rapper tore the buildings down.

September 13, 2019 - TMZ

Celebrity

Kanye West Lacks Permits for the Prototype Housing Units He Built

Kanye West's first foray into the development business is off to an inauspicious start.

August 9, 2019 - TMZ

Down Payment

Housing Starts Hit Two-Year Low

Housing starts and permits are slowing nationwide. The current pace of construction would have been considered a trough in pre-recession economic cycles.

April 20, 2019 - Marketwatch

Alamo Square

New Housing Construction Drops 41 Percent in San Francisco

Building permits aren't the same thing as new buildings, as San Francisco proved once again in 2018.

April 11, 2019 - Curbed San Francisco

California

Cheaper, Easier Affordable Housing Development Proposed in San Francisco

San Francisco Mayor London Breed is proposing major reforms of the permitting process for affordable housing and accessory dwelling unit projects in the city. The idea is that cheaper projects are much easier to build.

February 12, 2019 - San Francisco Chronicle

Brooklyn Construction

False Construction Permits Go 'Unchecked' in New York

New York habitually lets property owners begin construction without disclosing that their buildings are rent-stabilized or occupied by tenants.

September 26, 2018 - Politico

Building Boom: Study Reveals Effects of California's 2016 Accessory Dwelling Units Law

Permits have shot up after California passed a landmark law in 2016 to make it easier to permit and construct accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

December 25, 2017 - Terner Center for Housing Innovation

Housing Construction

A Quick Look at State-By-State Building Permit Data

Building permit data provides a barometer of the development market, which is a reflection of development processes and planning regimes. The arc of the country's housing construction trends bends toward Texas.

June 7, 2017 - U.S. Census Bureau

Pedestrian Infrastructure

Oakland Hoping to Provide Safer Pedestrian Infrastructure at Construction Sites

"Every reasonable effort should be made to avoid and minimize construction impacts on pedestrian, bicycle, and bus facilities in Oakland," according to a guidance released by the city of Oakland earlier in 2017.

April 10, 2017 - Transport Oakland

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Launches New Permit and Code Tracking Website

The city of Pittsburgh launched a Buildingeye website to provide new access to the development and approval process in the city.

October 16, 2016 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Denver Union STation TOD

Denver Planning Department Hiring to Keep Up With Permit Backlog

As Denver's development industry achieves post-recession levels of activity, the city's Department of Community Planning and Development needs staff for pre-recession levels of capacity.

June 24, 2016 - The Denver Post

Mapping Ten Years of Affordable Housing Projects in Chicago

The power of open data and mapping is on display in a map by Chicago Cityscape that shows all building permits for affordable housing in Chicago over the past decade.

February 5, 2016 - Chicago Cityscape

New York Construction Permits Break 50-Year Record

Not since 1963 have so many construction permits been issued. In fact, permits issued in the month of June alone exceeded the average annual total over the past two decades.

July 30, 2015 - The Wall Street Journal

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