A road map out of planning hell

YOU WANT to build a housing development, or fix up your existing house. Or you need to upgrade rental properties or build a deck or shed. You've just entered the particular hell known as the Philadelphia permitting process. This process could force anyone seeking a single-building permit to make his way through 14 agencies that aren't linked electronically or even philosophically, each of which has its own set of requirements, fees, and appeals process.

A report released yesterday - overseen by the Planning Commission and drawing on an ensemble cast from the Streets, L&I, Water, and Commerce departments, the deputy's mayor's office for transportation and utilities and the tecnology division - could be the holy grail for reform in the city.

It's essentially a GPS that will ultimately allow people to better navigate what is now a Byzantine, complicated inefficient system. It's a system that, as the report points out, can take anywhere from 156 to 571 days - and sometimes 1,000 days. That means developers who want to invest in the city have to be prepared to wait - or go find a more hospitable place to spend their money.

The report (find it at

www.philaplanning.org) is a clear-eyed acknowledgment of the city's weaknesses (and strengths) in issuing permits, and has many groundbreaking aspects. One is its road map to better streamline the process and have agencies and departments better coordinate.

But another is the report's appendixes, which lay out in simple terms the steps for getting 22 permits, from sign zoning to plumbing to special hauling.

Countless people have entered the nightmare world of Philadelphia permitting and have never come back (read some of their comments on www.thecityhowl.com or contribute your own). This report is a smart map to a better place.