Denver Mayor Mike Johnston on Monday signed an executive order to overhaul the permitting process, under which delays on the part of the city would mean refunding thousands of dollars of an applicant’s fees.

The order also consolidates 280 city employees across seven different departments under one office to accelerate the permitting process.

“This is a very big deal,” Johnston said, “because right now, if you are someone who is looking for an affordable housing unit somewhere in the city, if you are an entrepreneur looking to open a small business, this right now is going to make that work faster, easier and cheaper.”

“And for us, that means sending a clear message that Denver is open for business,” he said.

Under the overhaul, the city promises to speed up permitting. Failing to do so, the mayor said, would mean an applicant can get up to $10,000 of fees back.

According to Johnston, the creation of the new Department of Permitting Office will not come with additional cost as it utilizes current city employees.

The push for faster permitting comes amid a nationwide debate spurred by journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in a new book called “Abundance,” whose core argument is that the cities where Democrats govern have put regulations and obstacles in place that make it impossible to build things quickly.

“It has become too hard to build and too expensive to live in the places where Democrats govern,” Klein wrote. “It is too hard to build homes. It is too hard to build clean energy. It is too hard to build mass transit … The problem is the rules and the laws and political cultures that govern construction in many blue states.”

Johnston unveiled the plan amid struggles by certain parts of the city, notably its downtown, to attract tenants and pedestrians. Downtown, in particular, has been undergoing a shift away from offices since the COVID pandemic — office vacancies hit 35% with more expected, as companies and building owners continue to downsize.

“To make housing more affordable and make it easier to do business, we have to remove unnecessary obstacles and streamline city processes so builders can spend less time with permit reviews and more time creating quality construction jobs that drive our economy,” the mayor said.

The city plans to improve transparency and communication by requiring responses to customer questions within two business days and establishing a one-stop-shop website.

For those needing additional help, Johnston said the city will expand in-person availability at the permit counter on weekdays to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and add “project champions” to lead customers through the site development process.The new office is also committed to responding to questions from residents within two business days.

In addition to consolidating departments under a single director, Johnston said the city would deliver projects to developers quickly.

“What that means, is you are submitting for a site development plan and or permits, when you submit that proposal, if it’s a complete proposal, we will start a shot clock that says we will guarantee to you, within 180 days, that project will be completed and would be permitted,” Johnston said.

Should a project not have a final decision after 180 days, applicants may appeal to an executive committee which will “unstick whatever is stuck, get that project, moving it up again.”

“We’re so serious about that commitment that if, after that convening, within 30 days, if you’ve not reached resolution or gotten a permit, we will refund up to $10,000 of your permitting fee,” Johnston added.

Johnston said creation of the the new office will help restore Denver’s reputation as one of the best cities in the country to do business.

This is not Denver’s first attempt to expedite its permitting systems. Earlier this year, the city launched an express permitting process for restaurants to expedite openings.

Previously, it could take up to 18 months to get a restaurant permitted for opening, Johnston said. Now, that number is down to weeks.Currently, developers planning large-scale housing and commercial projects can expect a wait time of close to 24 months on site development plan approvals.

The new office will begin operations in mid-May under the direction of Community Planning and Development Deputy Executive Director Jill Jennings Golich, who will report to Johnston’s chief of staff, Jenn Ridder.

While reducing permit review times by 30% has been among Johnston’s citywide goals, the announcement comes as developers increasingly blame the city’s bureaucracy and energy regulations as reasons to reconsider plans to build in the Mile High City.

A new study released by NAIOP, which represents the national commercial real estate industry, shows a sharp lag in economic contributions to Colorado made by the commercial development sector, in comparison to those of similar Rocky Mountain states that lack the ambitious carbon initiatives.

Just a year ago, NAIOP’s 50-state data showed that the input to Colorado’s broader economy from the development and improvement of hotels, apartments, large retail and offices totaled $14.81 billion. NAIOP’s newest data indicate that contributions here from that sector fell to $6.67 billion last year, a 55% drop.

By comparison, the study shows Utah having received multifold favorable impacts from commercial development in 2024. Other nearby states show some declines at a moment when stubborn interest rates may be affecting real estate spending — but nothing on the order of Colorado’s sizable loss.

In its summary for the industry in 2023, NAIOP called commercial real estate in Colorado a “powerful economic engine” that supported and created more than 93,000 jobs.

By 2024, that jobs number fell to about 33,000.

At the same time, Utah’s jobs in the sector exploded to 168,000 from roughly 59,000.

“What’s being asked of developers doesn’t comport with what’s feasible,” said Carl Koelbel, president of Koelbel and Company.

Koelbel told The Denver Gazette that, after 73 years, his company is now pursuing opportunities out of state.

Reporter Mark Samuelson contributed to this story.