Staff from the Department of Land Development Services (LDS) and the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) conducted a 90-day pilot program beginning in August to test a process change that would reduce the review period for residential deck permits from about ten days to three-business days. The pilot project was successful, and the new process has been implemented as a permanent change; comprehensive residential deck reviews are now completed within three-business days. LDS and DPD staff have been able to review applications associated with residential deck permits within three-business days of completed application submission. This includes first submission applications as well as resubmissions.  This change will streamline the permitting process for the over 2,000 residential deck permits that are issued on average each year.

This does not include deck projects proposing encroachment into the Resource Protection Area (RPA) and/or the floodplain as those require separate, and more technical, site review. For more information on floodplain and RPA submission requirements, visit our Plan Ahead page.

Current review times for non-residential deck permits and other project types can be found at Land Development Metrics.

For more information about residential deck projects please visit the LDS Permit Library or call 703-222-0801.