Houston permitting staff say third‑party reviewers keep backlog from growing but do not reduce it

Houston Public Works and leaders at the Houston Permitting Center told the City Council’s Government Operations Committee on an October meeting that third‑party plan‑review contracts have prevented permit review times from worsening but have not reduced the backlog.

Rudy Moreno, deputy director of the Houston Permitting Center, told the committee that the city reviewed more than 60,000 unique projects and performed about 85,000 project reviews in fiscal year 2025. “We are not eating into our balance of plans that are in the queue, which essentially we almost broke even,” Moreno said. “With third party staff augmentation contracts, we're just maintaining. We are treading water.”

Why it matters: plan reviews are a gate for construction and development permitting. Moreno and Joanna Clark, deputy city engineer with Houston Public Works, said the city depends on external contracts to handle reviews across multiple disciplines — structural, electrical, plumbing, traffic and mobility, storm water, flood‑plain and telecommunications reviews — while it builds internal capacity.

Staffing and cost

Moreno said the Permitting Center reported about 122 vacancies, roughly a 20% vacancy rate, with plan‑review positions comprising about 15.5% of the vacancies. The agency has shortened its service level agreement: 80% of plan reviews are to be completed in seven days or less. Moreno said routing at the front and back ends…