Dive Brief:

• Contractors and builders in the city and county of Denver say delays in getting building approvals are hurting their recovering businesses.
• The delays can run into months, holding up tens of millions of dollars in projects.
• Officials say staff shrank during the recession, and remaining workers cannot handle the volume of work that the recovery has brought to the area's construction sector.

Dive Insight:

This is a case of government being unable to match the speed of recovery in the private sector. Thye city shed staff as budgets got tight, and adding them back is a process, not just a decision. Meanwhile, people report they are losing builders to other jobs because permits do not come through in time, builders and contractors have trouble scheduling work, and projects can miss an entire building season or suffer an interest rate increase on loans while everyone is waiting.