By Robert Treta | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
I’ve been designing and building homes in Denver for 28 years. I pulled my first permit in 1997—for a small room addition on a house. It took one day. One.
That kind of efficiency used to be the norm. Permitting was straightforward, business-friendly, and a basic example of how local government should work. But over the past two decades, I’ve watched the city’s permit approval process become increasingly bloated, inefficient, and damaging—not just to builders like me, but to every Denverite who rents or buys a home.
This problem isn’t new. Denver’s permit delays became a real issue as far back as 2007, when the wait time for a standard permit grew to four months. Now, in 2024, the average wait time is 385 days. That’s more than a year just to get permission to build something the city will eventually approve anyway.
Let me be clear: time is money, especially in the building business. Every extra month waiting on permits means more loan interest, more taxes, and more lost opportunities. These costs are not absorbed by builders—they’re passed on to buyers and renters. It’s no coincidence that Denver’s housing prices have climbed right alongside permitting delays.
But here’s what’s even more frustrating: most of this process is completely unnecessary.
Since around 2012, all structural elements in a build must be signed off by an Engineer of Record (EOR). These professionals are already legally responsible for safety and code compliance.
So why does the city of Denver still insist on conducting its own full plan review?
At this point, it’s just redundant—and it’s costing all of us.
Instead of streamlining government, Denver has ballooned its plan review staff. But the delays have only worsened. More staff, more inefficiency.
It’s a mystery only government could produce.
This week, Mayor Mike Johnston unveiled a new plan to “speed up” the process—by reducing permit times to 225 days. That’s better than 385, sure. But let’s be honest: 225 days is still 224 too many.
His plan might sound like reform, but it’s really just a band-aid over a broken system.
It still adds around $125,000 in costs to every new home, and that’s a cost working families in Denver simply can’t afford.
What Denver really needs is a complete overhaul of the permitting process.
Here’s my plan:
- Require all Engineers of Record to register with the city and certify that they understand Denver’s building amendments.
- Eliminate the plan review department’s role in structural review entirely.
- Focus city staff solely on zoning compliance—a check that takes 20 minutes or less for a standard residential project.
- Return permitting timelines to one business day, saving builders time and taxpayers millions by reducing government overhead.
The current permitting office is outdated, inefficient, and harmful to affordability. Making it “less broken” isn’t enough. We need bold change—and we need it now.
If Denver is serious about affordable housing, then we must get serious about the unnecessary costs driving prices up. That starts with cutting the permit delay from a year to a day.
Let’s stop adding barriers and start building solutions.
Robert Treta is a Denver-based builder, contractor, and architect with a passion for sustainable infrastructure. He is the owner and operator of Treta Design and Build, a construction company he started after moving from New Jersey 27 years ago. Treta ran as an unaffiliated candidate in Denver’s 2023 mayoral election. His overarching campaign message was a call to “make people fall in love with Denver again.” He has filed to run again in the 2027 municipal general election.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.