Let’s copy Texas

Salim Firth writes:

Bureaucratic delays also inflate construction costs, driving up housing costs. According to a study of residential construction in eight California cities, the average approval time for projects that meet local standards was between seven and 30 months. Projects requiring variances or other exemptions took even longer. Such delays will not creep into North Carolina and Texas, though, where newly passed legislation requires cities and counties to issue project approvals within a few weeks. In Texas, a developer can now move forward with construction if a municipality takes more than 30 days to review a completed application. North Carolina now imposes a 15-business-day limit for building permits involving one- and two-family dwellings.

Think what such a law would do in NZ in terms of incentivising Councils to have more efficient processing times.