At Raleigh’s planning department, a growing city strains a shrinking staff | Opinion

Raleigh is growing faster, but the building permit process is growing slower.

Anyone from a homeowner adding an extra room to builders of large apartment and office buildings are waiting longer to get city approvals. In the building business, where time is money, the delays add to costs, especially when interest rates are rising.

Patrick Young, head of Raleigh’s Planning and Development Department, is keenly aware of the delays and the causes. As the COVID pandemic has eased, pent-up demand has led to a surge in construction and permit applications.

“We’ve had record high numbers of permits and that is still going on,” Young told me. “All the things that made Raleigh desirable before the pandemic are more desirable now. Folks want high-quality urban amenities and a little more elbow room.”

At the same time, Young’s office, like government offices at all levels, has lost staff to better paying jobs in the private sector. The department’s vacancy rate is double the usual level. Of the department’s 193 positions, 27 are vacant.

Builders are frustrated by the resulting delays, but reluctant to criticize the department that is essential to their work. Builders also realize that slower permitting is part of pandemic-related slowdowns. It also takes longer to hire skilled construction workers and tangled supply lines have delayed the delivery of materials.

Permitting delays, however, bother Young. Since coming to Raleigh from the Durham planning department two years ago, he has focused on creating a responsive department. He said, “I believe customer service is the most important thing we do.”

In July, the Planning and Development Department and several other city departments involved in permitting adopted a “customer bill of rights.” It calls for the courteous and responsive treatment of applicants and other customers, transparency about fees and clarity about when a request will be resolved.

What’s hindering prompt service, Young said, isn’t budgeting. He’s satisfied with what the city provides. The problem is attracting and retaining employees, many of whom can use their knowledge of planning and permitting to land much higher paying jobs with companies involved in construction.

“There’s not an issue with sufficient resources,” Young said. “The issue is we struggle to fill vacancies and retain people. A lot of folks can leave and go to the private sector and almost double their salary.”

To stem the loss of employees, the city of Raleigh has provided retention bonuses. In Young’s department, employees have been given more flexibility to work from home and supervisors are conducting “stay interviews” in which employees are asked what resources they need to keep working for the city.

“We’re doing everything we can think of,” Young said.

Pay raises, bonuses and asking employees what they need are sensible steps to counter problems with retention and hiring. But when a fast-growing city finds its overwhelmed services causing a bottleneck, it’s time to think of broader changes.

The City Council should review the wage structure for employees with skills that are in demand in the private sector. It should also consider how to simplify regulations to speed permitting without weakening requirements that ensure safe construction and protect the environment.

As Raleigh grows, the city needs to keep up.

This story was originally published December 16, 2022 at 4:00 AM.