Illustration by BARTOSZ KOSOWSKI

ver the past several years in Dallas, the city’s process for getting a building permit—a permission slip from the government simply to start building the structures you are already allowed to build on your own property under existing law—has been badly broken. It takes about six months to get approved for a new commercial development, which is actually an improvement over the 300 days or longer it has historically taken. Wait times for residential permits have similarly improved, though homeowners have long complained about the arduous and time-consuming process.

At least there was a nice new $29 million office building the city purchased in 2022 and once envisioned as a “one-stop permitting center.” That is, until it was shuttered and the city workers evicted in May 2024.

Why? Because that building didn’t have the proper permits either. It is still empty today, over a year later.

Consider this a unique but particularly ironic and dramatic example—the reductio ad absurdum of a widespread problem. Residents and businesses in many cities across America report that permitting delays are commonplace.

Take Portland. That city requires multiple permits for the same project but approves them at different speeds. As a frustrated resident said in response to a city-issued survey about improving the permitting process: “The building permit took several weeks of back and forth, but the associated electrical permit took no time, and so I ran right up to the expiration date on the [permit required for plumbing and electrical work].”

There is plenty of evidence that these types of delays drive businesses away and cause frustration for homeowners. Not to mention the actual dollar cost of construction delays as ever-increasing tariffs hike the price of construction materials. Now imagine that the permitting process is either so complex or hard to comply with that even the government itself can’t seem to do it correctly, and … well, you get Dallas. I guess these problems are bigger in Texas too.

In a free society, the responsibility should not be on the property owner to prove to the government why they should be able to build a deck onto their house.

In a free society, the responsibility should not be on the property owner to prove to the government why they should be able to build a deck onto their house, among other things. The legal logic that flips the burden of proof onto the government instead is called a “by-right” presumption. In practice, it simply means that unless something is strictly forbidden by an existing zoning code, the permit would be automatically granted or assumed to be granted—no discretionary review by any government bureaucrat necessary.

Yes, there are plenty of problems with those zoning codes as they exist in the
United States today. They impose arbitrary and onerous edicts on what can be done with private property and sometimes how many acres are required for the construction that is allowed. This has led to a smaller supply of housing than would occur otherwise, driving up housing prices and making the “starter home” all but extinct.

Eliminating zoning altogether is the best option. It’s the origin of all these problems—the mother of all permission requirements. But if you think getting a permit takes too long, wait until you see how long it takes to get zoning reform.

In the meantime, state and local reforms can create safe-harbor by-right categories for home remodeling or new residential construction. For other types of development like commercial buildings, cities should be required to abide by “shot clocks” that require them to act on an application within a period of days, not months. These reforms could be paired together to effectively outlaw needless bureaucratic delays: If the time has run out on the application, the permit is assumed to be automatically approved.

This won’t increase the total amount of private land available for new construction. But it would speed up construction on the land we already have. Building now, without waiting for a permission slip, is a more suitable posture for a free society. And when it comes to creating new housing options, it might also be a necessary first step.