Unnecessary and costly permitting delays have drawn bipartisan attention in both cities and states around the country. There are solid reasons for this focus, given the downside of permit problems and the impact on economic development initiatives and the much-needed construction of affordable housing.

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrell spoke about the problems caused by permit delays in her state at a recent press conference. “For too long, I’ve heard the same thing from so many of our businesses – it’s just too hard to do business in this state. Permitting is too slow.

Licensing is a black box. Projects fail simply because they can’t afford the uncertainty or the wait. Every year of delay can increase costs by 10%, and that has a ripple effect, making everything from a mortgage to an electric bill to groceries more expensive. We can’t let that happen.”

According to an article in the New Jersey Monitor, which covered the press conference,  the state plans to tackle the issue with a plan to hire more staff and update technology “to cut permit backlogs, expedite permitting decisions, make the process more transparent, and better coordinate projects that need several permits across multiple state agencies.”

A release from the state, emphasized the role that will be played by a New Jersey Permitting Dashboard which aims “to make the permitting process for developers, businesses, nonprofits, and other applicants more transparent and accountable.” 

Currently, the state has been looking for ten project submissions by May 21, 2026 that will help it build and improve the dashboard, which aims to track permit applications across state agencies in one place, providing target due dates, next steps and status updates “for each of your permits.” 

The governor called this a “critical step toward a more streamlined system, saving New Jerseyans time and money and making it easier to build more housing, open businesses, and deliver critical infrastructure.”

(Note: For information about how a number of cities are handling permitting reform, see the April issue of Government Finance Review, which includes a column by Barrett and Greene, publishers of this website, with examples of how cities are approaching permit reform.) 

#StateandLocalManagement #StateandLocalPermitManagement #StateandLocalPermitDelays #StateandLocalPermittingPerformance #NewJerseyPermittingDashboard #NewJerseyMonitor #FixingPermitBacklogs #ExpeditingPermitDecisions #StateandLocalPermitTransparency #StateandLocalPermitAccountability #StreamliningPermitting #NewJerseyPermitReform #StateandLocalManagementNews #GovernmentFinanceReview #BarrettandGreeneInc