Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Permits topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
City reports progress on permit processing: online submission planned for 2026
Summary
City staff described steps to streamline permitting, including a new permit coordinator, a permit-tracking dashboard, upcoming site-plan requirements for exterior permits and a full move to online submissions through CityView in 2026.
City officials reported progress on modernizing Lancaster’s permitting process, saying the city has reduced processing times, created an internal dashboard to track multi-department reviews and is preparing for a full online-permit rollout in 2026.
Mayor Seraci told council that in 2024 the city issued 2,315 building permits and, as of July 31, 2025, had issued 1,232 building permits year-to-date. Staff recently added a permit coordinator (identified as Kelly) to serve as the central point of contact for building permits and to help resolve holdups. The mayor also credited staff for creating a public-facing “permit finder” tool to help residents, businesses and contractors understand required permits; the tool is available at cityoflancasterpa.gov/permits.
The city said it will require site plans for all exterior permits to expedite review and that all commercial drawings will move to online submission only ahead of the full CityView deployment in 2026.
Officials said the changes are intended to speed processing and provide clearer guidance to applicants while increasing coordination across departments. No vote was required; the report was informational.
