By Tom Frank, Executive Director, CREDA Pittsburgh
On September 23, the City of Pittsburgh switched on the first phase of its comprehensive permitting and zoning reform. For anyone who has tried to move a project through the City in recent years, this is welcome news. To understand what is actually changing and why, I spoke with Ben Forstate, Special Projects Manager in the Mayor’s Office and one of the people closest to this work, along with Endy Fierro of AIA Pittsburgh. Their perspectives are below. First, the essentials.
I also want to be direct about one thing: this is our advocacy work in action. Over the past several months, CREDA Pittsburgh put permitting reform materials in front of the City. When the development community organizes around a clear, constructive ask, the City listens, and we are appreciative of that.
How we got here
Mayor Corey O’Connor signed Executive Order 2026-01 on his first day in office, directing City departments to conduct a 60-day review of permitting, licensing, design review, and project approval. The administration released its findings in March, then spent six months moving to implementation with PLI, City Planning (DCP), DOMI, and the Department of Innovation & Performance. Phase 1 is the first of three phases that track a project’s life cycle: intake, review, and inspection and completion.
What changed in Phase 1
Phase 1 targets intake, meaning how a project enters the system. The headline reforms:
- EZ Permits. A one-business-day approval lane for 15 routine residential and commercial work scopes that do not require design review.
- Virtual inspections. Video inspections for 13 residential work scopes, with advance scheduling cut from five business days to two. Paired with an EZ Permit, an eligible project can move from issuance to inspection in as little as three business days.
- Revamped pre-application meetings. For complex projects, a standardized multi-department process that produces a written Project Roadmap laying out permits, sub-permits, fees, reviews, public processes, and sequencing before formal review begins.
- OneStopPGH Permit Tracker. A public tracker, launched ahead of schedule in July, that lets applicants follow each review and inspection step and know where their application stands.
- Unified guidance. A consolidated OneStopPGH Permit Center webpage with clearer submission guidance and visual workflows.
- Consistency across departments. Shared service level agreements, standardized operating procedures, and joint staff training across PLI, DCP, and DOMI.
Early results worth noting
The City built a baseline from more than 11,000 Building and Development Applications submitted since 2024, and the early numbers are real:
- Median City review time for a Building and Development Application fell from 21 days in January 2026 to 7 days in August 2026, a 67% reduction.
- Simple permits that require no plan review now carry a median processing time of about three days.
- 59% of applications are complete at intake and move through no more than two review cycles, which the City itself flags as the biggest remaining opportunity.
The zoning piece
Reform is not limited to process. In July, the Planning Commission approved the administration’s first package of Zoning Code amendments (Bill 2026-0834): cleaning up obsolete language, modernizing dimensional and height standards, and simplifying height requirements in districts that can support more density. These are deliberately modest first steps, but they are the front end of a full Zoning Code rewrite aligned with the PGH2050 Comprehensive Plan. That rewrite is where the most consequential changes for our members will land, and it is where we will keep our attention.
Inside the reform: a Q&A with Ben Forstate
Ben Forstate serves as Special Projects Manager in the Office of Mayor Corey O’Connor and has helped lead the permitting reform effort.
What do you see as the biggest improvement from the first phase of permitting reform?
“For me, the biggest improvement is greater predictability. Applicants should have a clearer understanding of what the City needs from them, when they need to provide it, and what happens after they submit. We’ve focused on clearer submission requirements, better coordination before an application is filed, and simpler pathways for routine projects. The goal is to reduce avoidable delays and make the process easier to navigate from the beginning.”
Why is the City asking for more complete drawing sets at submission, and how will that help projects move faster?
“One of the things we’ve seen is that additional rounds of comments and resubmissions can add significant time to a project. A more complete application gives reviewers the information they need to begin substantive review rather than identifying missing information after the process has already started.”
“Complete submissions can also move into review without being held up by issues that could have been identified at intake. The goal isn’t to create a higher barrier to entry, it’s to reduce the back-and-forth that can make the overall process longer and less predictable.”
You’ve also worked to standardize definitions and requirements across departments. Why does that matter?
“Applicants shouldn’t encounter different terminology or expectations depending on which department they’re dealing with. Standardizing definitions gives applicants and City staff a common language and makes it easier to understand what’s required from the beginning, particularly for projects involving multiple departments.”
What has been the most eye-opening part of this process, and are there cities you’ve drawn inspiration from?
“One of the most eye-opening things has been how much variation exists within what we call “the permitting process.” A straightforward project and a large, complicated development can interact with the City very differently, and there isn’t one single bottleneck responsible for every delay.”
“We looked closely at what other cities are doing, particularly Seattle, Philadelphia, and Austin. We weren’t looking for a system Pittsburgh could simply copy, but at how other cities have approached specific challenges and which of those approaches might make sense here.”
How will you know whether these changes are actually working?
“We don’t want to judge success simply by whether we implemented a new procedure. We want to know whether it actually improves the process. We’ve built a much stronger baseline for measuring performance, including analysis of more than 11,000 building development applications dating back to 2024. That gives us a way to evaluate what’s working, what isn’t, and where we need to make further improvements.”
What’s next?
“The first phase focused heavily on the front end of the process: what applicants need before they submit, how applications enter the system, and how we can identify issues earlier. The next phase will look more closely at what happens once an application enters review, including how projects are triaged and queued, review cycles and resubmissions, and coordination between departments. The broader goal is to better match the level of process to the complexity of the project: routine work should be able to move through streamlined pathways, while larger and more complicated projects should receive coordinated attention early enough to identify and resolve issues before they become delays.”
A view from the design community: a Q&A with Endy Fierro
Endy Fierro is Executive Director of AIA Pittsburgh, whose members work inside the design review and permitting process every day.
How does this impact predictability?
“Predictability is incredibly important for building accurate budgets and ensuring projects proceed as planned. The new updates from PLI create explicit expectations and definitions across the city departments generally concerned with construction: PLI, DCP, Zoning, and DOMI. That united direction is what powered so many of these changes and allowed projects to run at a very fast pace. The City has studied why this worked, and this is their moment to implement new pacing that helps ensure projects move forward as expected, and perhaps even faster than anticipated.”
How does this improve timelines?
“The updates to the City of Pittsburgh’s permitting process will significantly improve speed for projects. AIA Pittsburgh, alongside our partners in the greater AEC sector, recognizes that while OneStop was a major improvement for construction projects of all shapes and sizes, it still left a lot of room for questions on timelines. It may seem like a simple improvement, essentially a “pizza tracker” for permits, but this measurement tool lets you and your architect partners clearly see where things stand, while also proactively reminding city staff about upcoming deadlines. Most projects will benefit from more explicit deadlines and fewer questions about if or when something will be reviewed within a given 30, 60, or 90-day window.”
How does the combination of both de-risk projects?
“From the architect’s perspective, the combination of streamlining and accelerating the process absolutely creates an atmosphere that makes projects less risky in a soft market. When a developer is worried about whether a project will pencil, or knows they have only a slim reserve if an unexpected hurdle arises during design and pre-construction, these updates establish clear new procedures that benefit the sector. They also allow estimated fees to be calculated upfront, with fewer surprises down the road. Paired with the DCP Comprehensive Plan, which is nearing final presentation for adoption, likely in March of 2027, these changes will enable a larger overhaul of zoning that will de-risk projects even further, with far fewer variances needed.”
Our seat at the table
Phase 1 is a genuine step in the right direction, and it reflects priorities our members have raised for years: predictability, speed for routine work, and clear communication. CREDA Pittsburgh will stay engaged through Phases 2 and 3, and we will keep bringing the development community’s perspective directly to the people writing the rules.