Greenville City building department reports surge in permits, shortens plan-review timelines
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Summary
Greenville City building officials told council the department is handling more permit applications year-to-date, has cut standard plan-review timelines for residential and commercial projects, and has processed hundreds of storm‑damage repairs after Hurricane Helene with fees waived for repair‑only work.
Buddy, Director of Building and Codes and Chief Building Official for Greenville City, told the City Council at a work session that the building department is handling substantially more activity year-to-date and has shortened plan‑review windows to speed approvals.
“We issued 204 applications so far for storm damage repairs,” Buddy said, and added that the department has performed 768 inspections related to those repairs and included that work in the year‑to‑date totals reported to council.
The update covered five categories of year‑to‑date activity. Buddy reported the department is about 400 permit applications ahead of where it was at the same point last year and ahead of the previous five years for application intake. Permit issuance is also higher, he said — roughly 800 permits ahead of last year — and inspections are up roughly 3,500 compared with the same period last year.
Buddy said permit fee totals are modestly ahead of the previous two years but remain below 2021 and 2022 levels. He described the department’s valuation totals — the dollar amounts contractors list on permit applications — as higher than the most recent three years but below the peaks seen in 2020–2021 when construction‑material prices spiked.
Council members and staff discussed the city’s policy for waiving fees on storm repairs after Hurricane Helene. Buddy and others said the city manager, Shannon, directed staff not to charge permit fees for repairs that restore a structure "like for like." For projects that include an addition, the city charges fees only on the addition, staff said. Councilmember Dowd said he supported the policy but added scrutiny on whether the waiver is benefitting homeowners rather than contractors: “I just am not fully convinced that the benefit has been passed on to the consumer,” Dowd said. Staff clarified the waiver is an upfront fee waiver rather than a reimbursement, and they recommended that final billing and receipts are the way property owners can confirm no permit fee was charged.
The department also reported changes to plan review timelines. Residential plan reviews (excluding multifamily) were reduced from 14 to 12 working days; commercial reviews for new projects and multifamily were reduced from 21 to 19 working days. Buddy said the reviewing departments — including planning, engineering and fire — achieved shorter average review times without adding plan‑review staff, and he highlighted a reduction in the number of times plans return for revision. For example, the department reported eliminating the previous “revision 5+” category entirely for 2025 and showed high first‑pass approval rates: about 77% of residential submittals approved on the first submission, 96% of residential alterations approved on first submission, and 100% of multifamily projects approved within the first or second revision.
Councilmember Gibson asked for more detail on whether the uptick in applications is concentrated in particular districts or in residential versus commercial work. Buddy said staff can provide a breakdown, and he noted the city’s GIS team maintains a heat map that shows year‑by‑year development by parcel and by commercial or residential classification.
Council members asked about properties still sitting dormant after Hurricane Helene. Buddy told council that staff would confer with the city manager and the resiliency team to develop a plan for addressing long‑standing lien‑damaged properties and report back to council in the coming months.
The building department said staff may need additional hires if the higher volume persists for the remainder of the year. Buddy said permit issuances are being handled with the same permit‑issuance staff they had a few years ago but acknowledged that plan review and inspection workloads could require future staffing adjustments.
Staff said they will provide more detailed breakdowns (by council district and project type) and an update on the lien‑property enforcement plan at an upcoming work session.
