ARTICLE
As reported in a recent Portland Tribune article, building permit timelines can make or break a project. Fortunately, HBA-championed House Bill 2306, passed in 2019, addresses three of the key issues to achieving faster residential permitting timelines: permit intake, permit review, and permit issuance. Using the current bill language and legislative intent, HBA is able to work with local jurisdictional staff and elected officials to encourage early addressing for faster permit submittals. HBA also uses the bill to demonstrate the critical act of concurrent, inter-departmental plan review while developers and regulators advance subdivision infrastructure requirements toward a final plat. Finally, because HB2306 does not allow jurisdictions to deny residential building permits when a subdivision’s infrastructure is substantially complete, HBA works with local jurisdictions to identify the precise points at which permits must be issued per their local planning and engineering codes. To learn more about HBA’s work on HB2306 faster permitting implementation at the local level, contact Ryan Makinster at ryanm@hbapdx.org for jurisdictions west of the I-5 corridor, and Roseann Johnson at roseannj@hbapdx.org for jurisdictions east of I-5.