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City officials say Acela rollout stabilized; auto-issuance and dashboard aim to speed permits
Summary
DHCD and the city’s permit team reported that the Acela permitting system has reached initial stabilization, launched an auto-issuance feature covering a portion of residential permits and published a public dashboard; officials said further work is needed on integrations, inspections coordination and staffing to complete reforms.
Baltimore City Hall — City permitting officials told the Council’s Housing & Economic Development Committee that the Acela permitting system has moved from an unstable launch to a stabilization phase after months of fixes, and that tools including an auto-issuance feature and a public dashboard are already producing measurable gains.
Deputy City Administrator Shamaia Kearney, who leads the cross‑agency permit Incident Command Structure (ICS), told the committee the team has implemented technological fixes, an expanded call center and a public dashboard to provide “more insight and specificity into application volume and individual permitting related tasks.”
Justin Williams, director of Permitting and Development Services, said the system’s new auto‑issuance capability “went live this week,” and estimated it could automatically issue roughly 20% of residential permits within 24 hours of submission. Williams added that early results from the first days after the go‑live showed a higher-than-expected auto-issuance rate on a small sample, and that the functionality is intended to free staff to focus on…
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