Residential Permitting Follow-Up

The Department of Community Planning and Development fully implemented six recommendations made in the original audit report. However, the department only partially implemented eight others, and it has not taken steps to address the risks six other recommendations had sought to resolve.

By fully implementing recommendations to develop a formal workforce plan and assess their resource needs, Community Planning and Development’s residential plan review team will be better able to make informed staffing decisions to meet their workload during citywide budget cuts. Additionally, the department’s implementation of a recommendation to formally review and evaluate applicant feedback will allow it to identify and fix frustration points in the permitting process — making the process more efficient.

Remaining Risks

The recommendations the department did not fully implement — including two of the three recommendations it did not agree to implement — present several lingering risks. Among them:

• Community Planning and Development did not develop sufficiently detailed policies and procedures for monitoring plan reviews. Without policies that detail how quality control reviews should be conducted and documented, the department cannot ensure plan reviews are monitored consistently and according to expectations.
• The department did not provide evidence it reviewed its training documents and guidance before choosing not to update its training plan. Without documented reviews, the department cannot ensure the residential plan review team’s training plan is aligned with department guidance.
• Community Planning and Development did not implement a recommendation to fix an Accela scripting error causing duplicate entries in the system. While the department says this does not affect the day-to-day work of the residential plan review team, it can result in the department underreporting the time it takes to review a permit.

Auditor's Letter

April 2, 2026

In keeping with generally accepted government auditing standards and Auditor’s Office policy, as authorized by city ordinance, we have a responsibility to monitor and follow up on audit recommendations to ensure city agencies address audit findings through appropriate corrective action and to aid us in planning future audits.

In January 2024, we audited Residential Permitting and found risks involving insufficient training and manager oversight, informal processes, and insufficiently reliable data. The Department of Community Planning and Development agreed to implement 17 of our 20 recommendations.

We recently followed up and found the Department of Community Planning and Development fully or partially implemented most recommendations. Although department officials did not agree to implement three other recommendations, we learned they took at least some action to address the concerns.

The Department of Community Planning and Development has made notable progress, but it did not fully address all the risks associated with our original findings. Consequently, we may revisit these risk areas in future audits to ensure the city takes appropriate corrective action. Since our original audit, the mayor created the Denver Permitting Office to ensure the city’s permitting process is efficient and consistent. Since the new office impacts some of the Department of Community Planning and Development’s processes, we reviewed the department’s processes that include the Denver Permitting Office in our follow-up work.

We did not update the status of the two recommendations the department did not agree to implement, as we presume it took no action toward implementing those. We include these recommendations in this report as a reference. However, we were pleased to find a third recommendation the department initially did not agree to implement was remediated.

We appreciate the leaders and team members in the Department of Community Planning and Development who shared their time and knowledge with us throughout the audit and the follow-up process. Please contact me at 720-913-5000 with any questions.

Denver Auditor's Office


Timothy O'Brien, CPA

AUDITOR TIMOTHY O'BRIEN, CPA
Denver Auditor

Denver Auditor's Office

201 W. Colfax Ave. #705 Denver, CO 80202
Email: auditor@denvergov.org
Call: 720-913-5000
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