City of Tulsa offers 1 day permit process to speed up residential remodel projects

Starting July 1, the City of Tulsa is offering a new fast-track option to speed up some home remodel projects. The permit process can turn paperwork around in just 1 day instead of 2 weeks. Gene Bulmash, the Senior Advisor to Mayor Nichols on housing, answered some questions about this permitting system.

Q: What will this fast-track permitting process do?

"It's intended to streamline and expedite specific permits for interior remodels up to a certain size so its not going to fix the permitting issues, but it's going to be one of the tools in the city's tool box to try to help us reach our goal of 6,000 new units of housing that are affordable by 2028 and reducing plighted properties by 60% by the same time period."

Q: Why does this only apply to interior remodels? Any plans to expand?

"Exterior models are more complicated, so you have structural issues, you have plumbing, electric, structural HVAC on exterior, so we're starting small...if it works, we may expand it in the future, but we wanted to limit it initially. We're going to evaluate it on a daily basis and make sure it's helping us reach our goals. If it's not, we'll revisit it and see if tweaks need to be made."

Q: In 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City's fast-track option was put on hold. What prompted the city to bring back the fast-track option after a five-year break?

"We have different staff than we had before, the world is a different place than it was before, we have a new mayor, new administration, new goals for its housing." 

Q: How much is the additional fee for fast-track review?

"It's an additional $500 in addition to the permit fee, so whatever you're applying for a permit for, if you want this expedited process, it's an extra $500."

Q: What are the qualifications?

"There are certain requirements; you have to have insurance requirements, and tie it to the size and the scope, but no professional builder requirements. You need plans and to show the insurance requirements, and the permit should be issued the same day." 

Q: How do you hope this will help housing in the city as a whole?

“I don’t think this will solve the housing crisis nor the homelessness crisis but it's something that we think we can do to ease the path, the Mayor has very aggressive goals on increasing housing that’s affordable, and decreasing plight, and functional zero homelessness so this is one of the easier things we can do to try to reach those goals and we’re not stopping here, we’re continuing to have conversations and discussions about other ways we can reach those goals.”

Fast-track reviews are by in-person appointments only and are conducted Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. For contact information and more information, click here.