Denver says ‘one-and-done’ policy for concept plans could save developers time

Earlier this month, Denver rolled out an update to its permitting process that could shorten development timelines by several months.

It could be pretty transformational for us,” said Chris Gleissner, director of site design and neighborhood development for Denver’s Community Planning and Development Department.

Gleissner said the department is moving to a “one-and-done” process for concept plans, the first formal step in the development process in which developers pitch their initial drawings and proposals to the city.

In the past, these plans could go back and forth for several rounds, with city staff offering comments and an applicant seeking to address them.

“You might spend a lot of time in concept review cycles, working one particular issue, while at the same time feeling like you’re not progressing other known issues with your site,” Gleissner said, adding that the average has been 2.3 review cycles.

Developers can’t move on to the next step – the submission of a site development plan – until the concept plan is approved.

Under the new one-and-done process, unless an applicant requests to stay in the concept phase, all projects will enter the site development phase after a single city review.

“If you were going to assign an average to a concept plan review, it’s probably a good four to six months in the previous state, and this would significantly shorten that to a matter of one to two months,” Gleissner said.

The city receives concept plans in various forms – some are closer to napkin sketches, while others look like full-on site development plans.