Development Review and Permitting Office

The Development Review and Permitting Office is housed in the Development Resource Center within the Department of Economic and Community Development. The Development Review and Permitting Office seeks to ensure the public's health, safety, and welfare through the enforcement of adopted building, electrical, plumbing, gas and mechanical codes and the Zoning Ordinance. This enforcement promotes the economic health of the City of Chattanooga by enhancing business development, retention, and neighborhoods. We select, develop and retain qualified staff.

Measures Below

  • Time to issue permits by type
  • Count of permits
  • Estimated economic impact of permit
  • Locations of construction

Time to Issue

A critical point of success within Development Review and Permitting is measuring the time it takes to issue a building permit for new construction.  The calculation is the date of issue less the date of application; and if a permit is issued same day, a value of 1 day is assumed.  Permit classes of Building Permits and Land Disturbing Permits are only selected.  The results below are the averages for Time to Issue overall for the fiscal year to date and for specific permit types.

Time to Issue by Type

Below is the monthly average days to issue by permit type.  From the data, it's clear Residential Building and Land Disturbing are fairly consistent, and Commercial permits show some variability.

Building and Land Disturbing Permit Types

Below is the distribution of permit applications broken down by type for Building and Land Disturbing only.  This shows there that Residential then Commercial make up a majority of the workload.

Permit Applications by Permit Class

Below the data visualization shows the overall fluctuation in different permit types for the 8 most common permit classes based on application  date.

Economic Impact

The Building and Land Disturbing permit applicants are asked to give an estimated cost for the project, which can then be used as a measure for economic impact.

Permit Locations

Where are construction, demolition, street cuts, plumbing, and other permits being issued?  Use the map below to find construction going on in your area.

Permit Inspections

In an effort to maintain efficiency, the Development Review and Permitting Office actively monitors where inspections for permits are occurring and by which inspector to ensure no overloading of inspection requests and shift resources where needed.

Permit Inspection Workload

Below is a breakdown of all permit inspections occurring in the past 30 days and by which inspector.  This gives a  basic idea of how workload is distributed across the division.

Make-Up of Inspection Disapprovals and Non-Compliance

According to the data, most permit inspections that result in Disapprovals and Non-Compliance are due to electrical inspections, rough-ins, and final building inspections.