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Aurora development services reports improved on‑time metrics, but permits and multifamily starts are down
Summary
Director Jacob Cox told the August 9 Planning and Economic Development Committee that the department is hitting internal on‑time targets (91% average) and rolling out a new Amanda portal sprint, but development permits and multifamily permits have fallen year‑to‑date.
Jacob Cox, director of Development Services for Aurora City, gave the committee a semiannual development review at the Aug. 9 meeting covering performance metrics, recent process changes and ongoing projects.
Cox said the department's average on‑time performance across review stages is 91% and highlighted specific areas: development application pre‑submittal work, civil plan review and inspections. He told the committee the city has consolidated civil plan timelines in its system to improve predictability and is piloting those timelines on large projects.
Cox described procedural changes taken to reduce delays. The department removed a revocable license requirement for certain single‑family slab‑on‑grade construction steps after a legal and process audit. He also described dedicated project teams for city‑driven capital projects to keep consistent reviewer assignments through civil and site plan reviews and to reduce late comments during review rounds.
On technology, Cox said a major Amanda portal update was going live the week of the meeting (the presentation reported a July 19 sprint and multiple developer‑focused folders) and that the city is using Bluebeam Studio Sessions to coordinate reviews. He said the Amanda rollout included communications to thousands of users and that the update centralizes developer access to permit and development application workflows.
Cox provided year‑to‑date activity and revenue trends: overall permits issued were down about 9.2% year‑to‑date, building plan reviews decreased and single‑family permits were down 38%. Cox said multifamily permits were down 95% compared with the prior year; he added there are several large multifamily projects in pipeline that may come back. Cox also reported volumes of inspections and customer service metrics: 57,000 inspections year‑to‑date, and calls to the customer service hub answered within 45 seconds at 98%.
Planning staff and council members discussed Proposition "1 2 3" (the affordable housing ballot measure the city previously opted into) and a committed target of 550 units per year (1,650 units over three years), a figure Daniel Krasnowski of planning said the city had agreed to as its reporting target. Jessica Prosser (planning) told the committee that multifamily permit declines mean the city is unlikely to meet that target without additional pipeline projects or state‑level adjustments and that staff have begun conversations with DOLA on the matter.
No formal motions were taken. Staff said they will continue to refine timelines and report back with additional metrics and outreach results.
