Approval timelines: model the permit and utility paths before choosing a start date

Gather durations from the people doing the review

The Approval Timelines worksheet asks for preparation, initial review, applicant response, recheck, issuance and utility coordination durations. Use current estimates for the actual project and label the date and source of each. The page does not supply a guaranteed city turnaround time.

Enter calendar-day durations consistently. If an agency quotes working days, resolve the conversion and holiday assumptions before combining that figure with calendar days elsewhere. Enter zero for a stage confirmed not to apply; do not use zero merely because its duration is unknown.

Separate review from your response time

An agency’s review period is only one part of the path. The applicant may need to revise drawings, obtain missing product information or coordinate another discipline before resubmitting. Include that response period instead of blaming the entire elapsed schedule on the permit office.

The worksheet uses total applicant-response days and total agency-recheck days. If you expect several rounds, combine their durations transparently or maintain a more detailed schedule separately. The tool cannot predict how many comments a particular application will receive.

Choose parallel or sequential utility coordination deliberately

The permit path is review plus response plus recheck plus issuance. In parallel mode, the tool adds preparation to the longer of the permit and utility paths. In sequential mode, it adds preparation, the full permit path and the full utility path. The choice is a dependency assumption, not an instruction to the utility.

For illustration, take five preparation days, a 30-day permit path and 20 utility days. Parallel mode gives 5 + max(30,20) = 35 calendar days. Sequential mode gives 5 + 30 + 20 = 55. Neither result is an agency promise. Confirm whether utility work can begin on the information available before choosing parallel mode.

Interpret readiness as a planning milestone

The output models these approval paths, not the entire construction project. Equipment lead times, crew availability, weather, other reviews and later inspections may introduce additional constraints. Permit submission is also different from permit issuance and final closure.

Use the result to identify the longer path and the next information needed to improve the schedule. Recalculate when an agency estimate or drawing decision changes, and keep the earlier assumptions for comparison. A useful planner exposes dependencies; it should not turn uncertain durations into a guaranteed start date.

Keep the next steps clear