Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Housing Permits topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Builder calls out permit, inspection delays that slowed ADU project to a year
Summary
A builder told Denver City Council that a detached accessory dwelling unit completed in about a year faced months of delays tied to utility moves, a closed plan update, extra plumbing work and inspection paperwork, adding cost and postponing the certificate of occupancy.
David Pardo, a self-described technical lead with Nook House and education lead with EMB Denver, told the Denver City Council during the city’s general public comment period on Jan. 21 that his company’s detached accessory dwelling unit (ADU) project took about a year from permit issuance to completion because of several administrative and utility delays.
Pardo said the ADU ‘‘could have been built in 5 months, but it took a year from permit issuance to project completion.’’ He described several specific holdups: a six-month wait for a utility contractor to move an overhead line, a sewer-plan update that the city ‘‘silently closed’’ rather than approving or denying it, and the need to add an exterior plumbing cleanout after completion because an inspector later identified gaps. He said the unplanned exterior cleanout ‘‘added $4,000 to the cost and delayed our CO.’’
Why it matters: Denver city leaders have emphasized building more housing as part of the strategy to reduce homelessness. Pardo framed the delays as friction that slows creation of housing units the city says it needs.
Pardo said a utility contractor on the project, which required moving a power line to clear the backyard building envelope, performed a half day’s work but did not do so for six months, ‘‘causing about 5 months in project delays.’’ He also criticized Denver Community Planning and Development (CPD) inspections and permitting workflows, saying staff provided inconsistent guidance on what inspections to request and that the city’s upload system for documentation is ‘‘byzantine.’’
Pardo described a recent on-site inspection in which an inspector told the job supervisor they needed a wastewater inspection, but because the builder had not requested that specific inspection at the time, the inspector did not perform it during that visit and returned later for what Pardo called a ‘‘30 second inspection.’’ He said the sequence of paperwork and inspection requests contributed to additional site visits and delays.
Pardo urged city officials to prioritize turning new permitted units into occupied housing by aligning CPD and utility contractors’ actions with the city’s housing goals. He also said CPD ‘‘offered little guidance for builders in Denver’’ and does not provide a clear, published list of inspections and their expected order with the release of a building permit.
Ending: Pardo’s comments were part of the council’s half-hour general public comment session; he did not ask the council to take a specific vote but requested that city processes and interagency coordination be adjusted to reduce delays for new housing units.
