The city’s long-awaited, streamlined e-permitting system, kicked off in February to make it easier and faster for homeowners and builders to get construction permits, is a flop, a survey by the Baltimore Banner illustrated this month. In Bolton Hill, the number of permits issued during the first half of 2025 plunged by more than 100 percent over last year.
Citywide, about half as many permits were issued in the first half of 2025 as in the same period last year, the Banner discovered. The 9,941 permits issued for construction projects, demolition and land use changes as of June 3 are the fewest since the city began publishing permit records on its public database in 2015.
In January, just before the new system kicked in, Baltimore granted more than 3,000 new permits; in February, just 688. Construction delays can be costly and frequently will result in work going forward without the required permits. The mayor’s so-called “permits czar,” Justin Williams, acknowledged what he called “clogs” in the system.
The city pledged $3 million in federal COVID-19 relief money to fix the problem, and already has paid more than $2 million to Accela, the software developer behind the new online system.
According to the Banner, Bolton Hill projects resulted in 79 permits during the first half of 2020, 112 in 2021, 95 in 2022 and 74 in 2024, contrasting with just 33 for the same period this year.
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