"Mayor Daniel Lurie will today announce a plan to merge the Department of Building Inspection, Planning Department and PermitSF into a single agency, Mission Local has learned. The announcement, which is planned for today's "State of the City" speech, marks the onset of forming what the mayor's office described as a new, single entity "that fulfills all duties of the Planning and Building Inspection departments and is responsible for coordination of key citywide permitting functions.""
"The Department of Building Inspection has spent the past several years working to shed a legacy of corruption and deep inefficiency. Senior building inspector Bernie Curran was in 2023 sentenced to federal prison over a bribery scheme involving corrupt engineer and permit expediter Rodrigo Santos. Santos was also sent to federal prison in that same year. The mayor described today's proposed merger as a means of ensuring "better coordination, time and cost savings and a more predictable permitting process.""
Mayor Daniel Lurie will merge the Department of Building Inspection, Planning, and PermitSF into a single permitting agency. The new agency will handle planning and building duties and coordinate citywide permitting, with completion targeted by mid-2027. Wholly merging departments requires charter reform and voter approval; a November ballot measure is planned. The Department of Building Inspection has worked to shed a legacy of corruption and inefficiency after 2023 federal convictions of a senior inspector and a permit expediter. The merger aims to improve coordination, reduce time and cost, and make permitting more predictable; no layoffs are planned. Overlapping oversight commission roles will be addressed by the Commission Streamlining Task Force.
Read at Mission Local
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