The City’s Building department has relocated to City Hall’s lobby area as another effort to improve development processes.
Visitors to City Hall can use three spots in the City Hall parking lot or reserved parking across State Street marked for “City Administration” use while doing business at City offices. The Building department’s hours are Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. (closed from noon to 1 pm) and by appointment, more closely aligned with City Planning’s customer service hours.
All departments involved in permitting services (Building, Planning, Engineering and Fire departments) are working on ways to improve, streamline, and offer a more predictable review process to help administer and enforce state (structural and mechanical) building codes within the City of Hood River.
Development process improvements are part of a larger effort towards a City Council 2019 work plan goal of creating opportunities for an inclusive and diverse housing inventory. Earlier this year, the City initiated a series of process and regulatory updates based on internal and external stakeholder feedback. These included updated application forms and manuals, updated ADU regulations, updated Engineering Standards, preparing for expedited land divisions, and development of a project intake checklist for Building and Engineering permits. A Permit Enhancement Project will be considered
as a next step toward streamlining and tracking internal processes through development permit reviews.