The city of Dallas is ramping up its new system to help cut down on bureaucracy. Called DallasNow, it's a cloud-based system that integrates permitting, planning, platting, inspections and engineering into one platform.

It will provide online access for property owners, contractors, and developers to apply, review, and track applications electronically. Customers will also receive real-time notifications that include permits, inspection statuses, and itemized fee descriptions.

Construction permits are required by the city for everything from adding a new garage to your home all the way to building another ugly 5-story apartment complex on Ross Avenue.

Obtaining permit approvals from the city of Dallas has never been a cakewalk, but it nearly grinded to a halt during the pandemic, with wait times of nine months or more. In January, the city's planning and development department cut the median wait time for approval of new commercial construction permits from 300 days to 189 days.

Long wait times for basic projects does much to mar Dallas' reputation as a business-friendly place.

There are no predictions on what the wait times will be moving forward, but Planning & Development Deputy Director Vernon Young calls DallasNow a "game changer."

"Both city staff and customers will need time to adjust, but once fully implemented, this will be a game-changer for how Dallas handles permitting, zoning and inspections," Young says.

Young says that they are preparing their teams with ongoing virtual and in-person training. There will also be dedicated public workshops. However, they anticipate growing pains, and that includes moving the system offline from April 25 to May 4, as they migrate data from the old system to DallasNow.

The launch date will be May 5, but there is much activity leading up to that date:

April 14 – April 24: Oak Cliff Municipal Center extended hours from 8 am-6:30 pm
To help accommodate customers that may be impacted by this downtime, the Permit Service Center located inside the Oak Cliff Municipal Center will offer extended hours.

April 25 at 5 pm–May 4: Current systems not available online. Operations limited to Inspections, Emergency Releases·, and Consultations
Online services, including all permitting, engineering review processes, payment collection and certain online scheduling will be unavailable from Friday, April 25 at 5 pm to Sunday, May 4, due to the DallasNow system transition. Additionally, many Planning & Development in-person services will be limited. While online services are offline, essential operations — inspections, emergency releases, and consultations — will continue with limited availability.

May 5: DallasNow Launch Date