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Public Works introduces Bureau of Infrastructure and Development Permitting; pledges permit improvements and return visit
Summary
Bureau manager Denny Fan described the Infrastructure Task Force and the Public Project Permits team, outlined process improvements and said the bureau will return in a year with progress updates; commissioners asked about staffing, timelines and technology adoption.
Denny Fan, bureau manager for the new Bureau of Infrastructure and Development Permitting, told the Public Works Commission on April 10 that the bureau combines the Infrastructure Task Force (ITF) and the public project permits team to streamline large neighborhood development review and right-of-way permitting.
Fan said the roughly 15-person bureau provides full-service project management and technical design review for large development-agreement projects such as Treasure Island, Mission Bay and Hunters Point, and also manages a public-project permit stream for city capital projects and publicly funded projects. He said the ITF manages more than 25 large development projects with an estimated $6 billion of planned public-infrastructure construction value and that the bureau supports housing delivery by shepherding complex infrastructure from entitlement through construction and final acceptance.
On permitting, Fan described three dedicated permit groups for public projects, private construction and commercial permits and listed recent process improvements: published completeness standards and pre-application checklists, an early completeness-check step after initial submittal, focused permit teams, a migration to electronic plan review using Bluebeam, implementation of a permit-tracking system called Clarity and public-facing dashboards. He said the bureau is coordinating with the mayor's Permit SF effort and meeting regularly with frequent applicants and other city departments to identify pain points and further improvements.
Commissioners asked about staffing, measures of success and the timeline for process improvements. Fan and Director Short said staffing remains a challenge but the department has recently filled some positions and is making a second submittal to the mayor's office to fill additional vacancies. For measures of success, Fan said the bureau will seek baseline permit-issuance timelines and applicant feedback and return to the commission with progress on the listed improvements; Chair Post invited the bureau back in about a year for an update.
During public comment on the item, Denise Louie raised concerns about CEQA compliance for ongoing construction and urged the department to consider wildfire-hardening guidance such as perimeter defensible-space requirements for future projects. Fan acknowledged the comment and said the bureau will continue to coordinate on environmental review and related issues.
