Small Businesses Feel Financial Impact of Permit Delays

Apr 29, 2008 by Jeff Robinson

Salt Lake City Working to Solve Planning Division Problems

(KCPW News) As Salt Lake City works to fix a planning division that a recent audit called dysfunctional, one business leader says the permitting process is still taking too long. Vest Pocket Business Coalition President Ellen Reddick says Mayor Ralph Becker is on the right track in fixing the division, but small business owners are feeling a stiff financial impact as their permit applications get hung up for months.

"Vest Pocket's issue is that some things are taking much longer than we would like to see, and it's impacting several small businesses financially," said Reddick. "We need decisions to be made in a much more timely manner."

Reddick praised the acting planning director and assistant planning director, but said the business community feels the mayor's senior advisor, Esther Hunter, should not be involved in planning.

Mayor Becker says Hunter has only been assisting the department, not trying to influence its decisions or circumvent the planning process. He says the backlog of permit applications is being dealt with.

"We had, when I came into office, a very large backlog of conditional-use applications and a variety of other applications before city planning," said Becker. "Some of those, unfortunately, got hung up. We have someone working full-time through each and every one of those conditional-use applications, trying to expedite our consideration of them."

The mayor adds that consultants are reviewing a conditional-use ordinance passed by the city council that was not well received by the business community. He says the city expects to fill one of the three high-level planning and economic development vacancies by the end of next week.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2008 KCPW