Citing fewer building applications—and the revenue from permit fees—the city’s Department of Planning and Development (DPD) is laying off 26 employees. Planners who oversee new projects, permit specialists, and building inspectors make up most of the layoffs.

Applications for new projects fell 40 percent from 2007 to 2008, and the value of those new projects has also dropped, says DPD spokesman Bryan Stevens. Whereas from 2004 to 2007, developers filed numerous ambitious projects like commercial skyscrapers and condo towers, now the largest projects moving forward are predominantly four and six-story residential buildings. More valuable developments and buildings requiring complicated permits—such as skyscrapers—generate more money for DPD.

“Our department is 85 percent fee based, so we rely heavily on those larger projects,” says Stevens. DPD employs 410 people.

“I would say that what is happening in the wider development community is certainly behind the DPD layoffs,” says Brett Allen, director of new business development for Triad Development. “Simply put, there are very few projects that are moving forward if developers don’t have financing in place,” he says. That financing, he says, "is impossible to come by.”

“Every development firm that I know of in the city has had layoffs,” Allen says. Triad, which formerly held a staff of nearly 70 people, has laid off “in excess of 20 percent of the staff,” he says. "Everyone has got their heads down and trying to figure out how we are going to survive this.”

DPD' s laid off staff will leave the job April 6. And it seems likely that DPD will add layoffs in the coming years. As existing projects complete, there will be less permit and inspection work for DPD staff.