Major Structural Change in City of Portland Permitting Administration

The City of Portland is moving to a single bureau to control all the permitting for “most” types of residential and commercial permits, calling it Portland Permitting & Development (or “PP&D”). While Commissioner Carmen Rubio said that “over time … Portlanders can also expect excellent customer service,” we expect that it might be a bit bumpy – and cause permitting delays – while staff settle into their brand new bureau.

PP&D will have teams that specialize in specific parts of the development process, such as public infrastructure and building permit review, as well as a team for customer support. The Bureau of Development Services (“BDS”) will be phased out, and the new PP&D will include nine work teams, including teams of staff that are being moved over to PP&D from the Parks & Recreation, Transportation, Water, and Environmental Services bureaus. In all, Portland Permitting & Development will have about 350 employees.

We know some things about the shifted review authority for the ordinance City Council passed to create PP&D. Notably, a number of bureaus (BES, PBOT, Water, and Urban Forestry) explicitly retain approval authority over deviations from, or waivers of, their standards, though they can choose to give that to PP&D, too. The Public Works permitting has been taken away from PBOT and BES when associated with development of a property. Similarly, the review of developments for “street tree” issues will move to PP&D from Urban Forestry.

But despite the news that PP&D will be up and functioning in less than a month – on June 1, 2024 – there is very little information the City has promulgated about how this will actually work. The current organizational chart, provided below, just shows the nine teams floating in a circle. It is not clear how long the “phase out” of BDS and the true organization of PP&D will take, but here’s hoping the City can manage this transition before the next major transition to a new form of government in Portland on January 1, 2025.