Wins Parking research · Open data
Parking Permit Review Times by City, 2026
Written by Ross D. Blankenship, Managing PrincipalUpdated October 202678 cities in the table. 23 publish a review target; 55 do not, and those rows show a Wins Parking estimate, marked as one.
Atlanta publishes a target of 10–14 days; Austin publishes a target of 7–25 business days; Boise, Pittsburgh and Washington publish a target of 30 business days; Boston publishes a target of 4–5 weeks; Charlotte and Houston publish a target of 15 business days; Columbus publishes a target of about 4 weeks; Dallas publishes a target of 15 days; Denver, Jersey City, Newark and Philadelphia publish a target of 20 business days; Detroit publishes a target of up to 20 calendar days; Las Vegas publishes a target of 3 weeks; Minneapolis publishes a target of about 10 business days; Nashville and Salt Lake City publish a target of 30 days; Phoenix and Portland, OR publish a target of 20 days; San Diego publishes a target of 10 business days; Seattle publishes a target of 8–12 weeks. For Anchorage, Baton Rouge, Bismarck, Bridgeport, Cedar Rapids, Charleston, SC, Charleston, WV, Chesapeake, Columbia, Cranston, Des Moines, Dover, Fargo, Fayetteville, Grand Rapids, Gulfport, Huntington, Huntsville, Jackson, Juneau, Kansas City, Lewiston, Lexington, Lincoln, Little Rock, Louisville, Madison, Manchester, Milwaukee, Mobile, Nashua, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Overland Park, Portland, ME, Providence, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, St. Louis, Stamford, Tulsa, Virginia Beach, Wichita and Wilmington, our estimate is 3–6 weeks; for Baltimore, our estimate is 8–12 weeks; for Burlington and South Burlington, our estimate is 2–6 weeks; for Chicago and Miami, our estimate is 10–16 weeks; for Hilo, our estimate is 2–4 months; for Honolulu, our estimate is 3–5 months (Civil Beat reported a 4-month commercial median, June 2026); for Indianapolis, our estimate is 6–10 weeks; for Los Angeles and New York, our estimate is 12–20 weeks.
Review time is the stretch between a complete application and an issued permit. It sets the start date of every parking project that needs one, from a charger installation to a lot rebuild, and it is the number owners most often guess wrong. Each row names the office, links its published target when there is one, and gives the date we checked it.
The data
78 rows. More cities are added as their Wins Parking pages go live.
Method
Where does each review time come from?
We start at the city's permit office website and look for a published review target: a service-level promise, a dashboard figure or a stated number of days for commercial building or electrical permits. When the city publishes one, the row quotes it and links the page it appears on.
When the city publishes nothing, the row shows a Wins Parking estimate and says so in the "Source of the time" column. The estimate is the range we plan around for a complete commercial application in a city of that size and permit volume. It is not a city figure and should not be quoted as one.
Method
What does the time cover?
The figure covers plan review for a complete application. It does not include the time to prepare drawings, zoning or site-plan approval when a project needs it, utility service work, or the inspections after the permit is issued. Incomplete applications restart the clock in most offices.
The office column names the department that issues commercial building and electrical permits in the city and links its home page. Where a state agency, not the city, reviews commercial plans (as Vermont's Division of Fire Safety does in towns without their own inspectors), the row says so. The checked column is the date we last opened the office's page and confirmed the figure.
Using the data
How should you use the table?
Sort by state or filter to published targets only when you need a number you can cite. For planning, add the review time to drawing time and any zoning step, then add utility lead time for electrical work. A project with chargers usually waits longer on the utility than on the permit.
Offices change their targets and their portals. Every row carries the date we checked it, a monthly job re-opens each link and emails a report of failures, and rows are corrected when an office posts a new figure.
Using the data
Why publish estimates at all?
Most cities do not publish a review target, but owners still need a number to plan around. Leaving the cell blank would hide the cities where the wait is least predictable. So the table gives our planning range for those cities and labels it as an estimate in its own column, apart from the published figures. Filter that column to "Published target" to see only city figures; filter it to "Wins Parking estimate" to see where you should call the office before you set a start date.
A short published target is not a promise for every project. Offices count days differently (calendar or business), start the clock at different steps, and pause it while they wait on corrections. Quote the figure with the office's own wording, which the linked page gives.
Using the data
Can you reuse this data?
Yes. The table and its CSV are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Credit Wins Parking and link this page. To report a newer published target, send the link to reserve@winsparking.com and we will confirm it and update the row.
About the author
Ross D. Blankenship
Managing Principal
Ross D. Blankenship is Managing Principal of Wins Parking. He has filed 20 U.S. patent applications on autonomous vehicle parking and charging, EV charging hubs and drone safety, all patent pending. He holds a JD from Washington University School of Law and a BA from Cornell University, and is the author of five books on AI and property.
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