A crane hangs over central Denver. March 11, 2025.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Denver City Council is considering a $4.6 million contract with ComplyAI to use its CivCheck tool to speed up the city’s development plan reviews.
For years, developers complained Denver’s permitting process just kept getting slower. The complaints led to a damning 2024 audit and Mayor Mike Johnston’s creation of a new permitting office.
The city says it has shortened the plan review process from an average of 90 to 63 days. Yet there are stumbling blocks that slow reviews, according to a city presentation.
Developers turn in incomplete applications and submit items multiple times. It’s impossible to predict when there will be a surge in demand for new permits. And the cost of building in Denver goes up as permitting timelines drag, leading to frustrations, according to the planning office.
So the city is hoping to use CivCheck to speed up the process with AI-guided intake to reduce customer errors and create a consistent, albeit less human, process across reviews.
The investment comes after the planning department was hit hard by city layoffs. Community Planning and Development lost 19 workers and 40 open jobs were eliminated, representing almost 20 percent of its headcount.
The layoffs included at least three plan review specialists who did the kind of work the city now is hoping to automate. Hundreds of people were laid off and vacant jobs closed citywide.
The new system could be implemented this spring.
The city started researching AI-assisted plan reviews in 2024 and eventually settled on CivCheck.
CivCheck would help customers check whether their applications are complete, offer immediate feedback, shorten the overall plan review time by increasing accuracy on earlier drafts, and reduce the number of review cycles, according to the plan.
The company will not be allowed to use data collected for training, human oversight is required for any final product, and data will be deleted according to data retention policies.
The implementation of the technology will not lead to further layoffs, said Jon Ewing, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.
Seattle, Honolulu and New York City all use similar programs. The planning office says these programs have led to up to 70% cost and time savings and that the AI is nearly always accurate.
On Monday, a city council committee unanimously sent the contract to a full council vote that will take place in the weeks to come.
