![\"Construction](\"https:\/\/www.publicsource.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Massaro_1.jpeg\")
Constructions workers at the site of The Neighborhood Academy’s expansion. (Courtesy of Massaro Corporation.)<\/p>\nDuring his campaign, Mayor Corey O\u2019Connor pledged to overhaul the city\u2019s permitting system. On his first day in office in January, he doubled down on that promise by signing an executive order requiring a multidepartmental review of how the city issues permits.<\/p>\n
Data obtained through OneStopPGH, the city\u2019s online permitting portal, shows that work may be paying off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As of July, it\u2019s typically taken 11 days to issue a building and development application permit \u2014 a prerequisite for most construction projects, including renovations, repairs, additions and new developments. It took the city about 27 days to issue a BDA permit during the same period last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Construction projects also often require additional permitting for electrical and mechanical work. The typical number of days that it takes for the city to issue these permits decreased by five and 30 days, respectively, over the same time periods.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The O’Connor administration isn’t declaring victory. A mayoral spokesperson wrote that the city will wait until it can evaluate a full year’s worth of post-reform permit processes before reaching conclusions.<\/p>\n
Some construction experts and architects welcome the city\u2019s quickened pace. But they, as well as the city, say there is still a lot more work to be done to address longstanding issues that have become increasingly apparent as the city continues to build.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How a school expansion takes form in Pittsburgh<\/p>\n
For Steve Massaro, president of the O\u2019Hara Township-based Massaro Corporation, Pittsburgh\u2019s permitting process was often slow and inconsistent from one job to the next. As a result, workers would be on the site with no work to be done.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re kind of nibbling around the edges on your construction project,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, your clock is ticking from a schedule perspective, but you can’t attack the job.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But this summer was unusual: Each of the eight projects the company worked on finished on time, he said. One of those projects, an expansion of The Neighborhood Academy\u2019s campus in Stanton Heights, offers a glimpse at what it takes to build in Pittsburgh.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Constructions workers at the site of The Neighborhood Academy’s expansion. (Courtesy of Massaro Corporation.)<\/p>\n
The private school, which serves middle-schoolers and high school students, wanted to expand its two existing buildings by a cumulative 20,000 square feet. Off the bat, the project required:<\/p>\n
A review by the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure to determine whether the project required a traffic study.\u00a0
\nA zoning review, because the school sits in an area reserved for residential use, along with a review by the City Planning Commission. The body recommended the application to Pittsburgh City Council in May 2025.
\nCity Council\u2019s review, which included a public hearing. Council passed a resolution approving the conditional use of the additional buildings in July 2025.\u00a0
\nA handful of other permits related to the inner workings of a building, such as electricity, sprinkler systems, fire alarms and suppression systems. Major construction projects also often require stormwater permits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the permitting process might feel far removed from reality for some Pittsburghers, it impacts many construction projects that serve a community purpose, such as The Neighborhood Academy, Massaro said. In that case, because contractors worked across two buildings, it\u2019s easy to see how permitting speeds have changed since last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The school was able to open for the new school year with the additions available for use, Massaro said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery building has a use and a purpose. Some are schools, some are health clinics, some are community buildings, and the longer it would take to get permits, the longer it would take to get inspections, the more the public would have to wait to receive the benefit of [that facility],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.publicsource.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_0380-scaled.jpg\")
Inside the new lab and classroom space included in The Neighborhood Academy’s expansion. (Courtesy of Massaro Corporation)
\nFrom a construction boom to COVID<\/p>\n
To Rob Pfaffmann, the founder of the architecture firm Pfaffmann + Associates and a longtime permitting and code reform advocate, the permitting process in Pittsburgh has always been more or less the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When he began working in the area as an architect in the 1980s, the city had few staff members responsible for reviewing project plans. And as the years progressed, he said, the construction and zoning codes that Pittsburgh followed began to match reality less.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, the issues weren\u2019t so apparent in the past, Pfaffmann said, largely because the city wasn\u2019t building as much. All of these issues converged more than a decade ago, however, when Pittsburgh experienced a boom in construction activity and built about 7,750 multifamily units<\/a> between 2010 and 2022 \u2014 roughly as many units as it built in the 30 preceding years.\u00a0<\/p>\n The permitting system has faltered since, Pfaffmann said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think [the City of Pittsburgh] got caught \u2014 no fault of their own \u2014 by the boom in our economy,\u201d said Pfaffmann. \u201cThat does expose the sort of flaws in the city processes that worked fine when there was no development.\u201d<\/p>\n The COVID-19 pandemic further revealed some of those challenges. For example: The state\u2019s building code requires at least two exits in all multifamily buildings. That\u2019s a challenge for developing office-to-residential conversions<\/a>, which became popular after the pandemic shook up downtown office markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n Between the start of COVID and 2024, permit applicants mostly relied on the city\u2019s online permit portal. \u201cSome people felt like it was screaming into the void,\u201d said Endy Fierro, executive director of the American Institute of Architects\u2019 Pittsburgh chapter. Then the city opened its in-person OneStopPGH counter, but pre-application meetings, which can smooth the process and have mostly been voluntary, rely heavily on departmental bandwidth, he said.<\/p>\n Learning from the past<\/p>\n The city is trying to chip away at some of those longstanding issues, said O\u2019Connor\u2019s Deputy Chief of Staff Matt Singer.\u00a0<\/p>\n