Developer Toney Sleiman says his frustrations with the city of Jacksonville’s construction permitting process began at age 20 when his father started sending him to City Hall to obtain building permits for the family’s real estate company.
Since then, decades have passed and Sleiman has been through the process an untold number of times as a second-generation principal of Jacksonville-based Sleiman Enterprises.
Sleiman Enterprises shopping center developments in Northeast Florida include Atlantic North, Crossings at Wildlight and Oakleaf Station. It says on its website it owns more than 90 properties throughout the Southeast
But despite promises by several mayoral administrations to make permitting faster and easier, Sleiman says, it remained cumbersome and susceptible to bureaucratic bottlenecks that could bring about monthslong delays and drive up the costs of projects.
“I’ve been trying to get the city to fix permitting for my whole life, and I can truly say that it has been nuts to try to do,” he said.
“The last four mayors, I met with them and met with them and met with them and said, ‘Look, permitting is a problem. We have a lot of mom-and-pop applicants, and when you hear stories of six, eight months for them getting permits, it just makes me crazy.’’’
Beginning about six months ago, Sleiman said, his frustration turned into hope through a series of conversations with Mayor Donna Deegan’s chief administrative officer, Karen Bowling, and then Deegan herself.
Today, Sleiman says: “We have a mayor who has finally said, ‘We’re going to fix it.’ And let me tell you, she’s fixing it.”
Eight-point plan
That mayor is Deegan, who May 1 announced an eight-point plan to streamline and expedite the civil plan review process, a part of permitting that involves elements of horizontal development such as grading and drainage, water and sewer service, parking, curb cuts, road modifications and more.
The plan dovetails with a similar effort initiated by Deegan’s administration to improve the process for residential and commercial building permits.
According to information provided during the announcement, the average time for processing of residential permits has fallen from 25 days to eight while the average for a commercial permit has been reduced from 30 days to 15.
Deegan said the strategy for civil plan review was developed with input from organizations such as the North Florida Builders Association and the NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association.
Sleiman also has been involved, through several months of conversations with Bowling and Deegan.
“We analyzed the entire process from start to finish to identify the pinch points and potential solutions,” Deegan said.
“The outcome is bringing more people and resources to the process, educating the developer community and bringing in technology to make it all work more efficiently.”
Two prongs of the strategy have already been implemented – the analysis and a transfer of the city’s Development Services Division from Planning and Development to Public Works.
Public forums
Next come three forums to discuss the strategy and gather input from industry professionals. The schedule:
• 8:30 a.m. to noon May 12 for civil permitting designers.
• Noon to 4 p.m. May 13 for building permitting designers.
• 1-3 p.m. May 15 for developers and property owners.
All three forums will be held in the First Floor Hearing Room of the Ed Ball Building at 214 N. Hogan St.
Other elements of the city’s strategy include moving civil plan review online to the JAXEPICS (Enterprise Permitting, Inspections and Compliance System) portal and transitioning paper processes to digital platforms.
‘Express lane’
The city also will evaluate an “express lane” option that allows for expedited reviews for an additional fee, and a private provider program in which the city would train and certify private professionals to conduct reviews under contract with applicants.
Nina Sickler, director of public works, said staff also will use artificial intelligence to help identify common mistakes in applications and craft an FAQ to help developers avoid errors in applying.
Wanyonyi Kendrick, the city’s chief information officer, said civil plan review would be available at JAXEPICS by the fall of 2025. Sickler said staff expected to make significant progress on the remaining portions of the plan in the next 60 to 90 days.
Sleiman said civil plan review can currently take six to eight months, with plans going back and forth between applicants and the city as many as five times for revisions.
“We think we can take it down to maybe 30 to 60 days,” he said.
“That’s big. Nobody in the country is doing it.”