The City of Houston’s “Quick Start” Program

Our standard commercial building plan review for the City of Houston is at 11 calendar days for 90% of all commercial plan reviews. This was a significant recent result of a taskforce initiative initiated by the Mayor’s Taskforce on Permit Reform. This process improvement puts Houston at the forefront of reduced permit processing times of large cities in the U.S.

In addition, as further incentive to encourage LEED Green Building Rating System certification, the Code Enforcement division of the City of Houston offers a Quick Start service to any project, which has registered for LEED certification regardless of construction cost and/or size. Incentive

The City of Houston is proud to offer financial incentives for LEED certified buildings. LEED projects qualify for a graduated rebate of the Quick Start fees. The rebate is based on the level of achievement – certified, silver, gold or platinum. Process

The process works as follows:

1. Declare intent in the first plan review. The review is done through the normal submittal process - approximately 11 calendar days to complete.
2. Then, as long as the developer sends in complete plans to start with, and has their “outside” department approvals, they qualify for the Quick Start meeting process, which used to be limited only to one million dollar projects. Instead of resubmitting for any subsequent reviews, which also take the typical 11 days LEED, projects will go directly to the meeting process.
3. By opting to pay an additional fee of 65% of the permit cost, the final plan review is completed in a face-to-face conference-like meeting with the reviewers, designers and owners present. The Quick Start program has been a popular option as it generally eliminates at least one plan resubmittal, thus, saving the builders valuable time and money.
4. Return of fee upon certification by the USGBC.

   The levels of achievement and rebates are as follows:

   • Platinum Level – 100%
   • Gold Level – 75%
   • Silver Level – 50%
   • Minimum Level – 25%

   For review, participants will need to submit:

   • A Quick Start Application
   • The project registration receipt from the USGBC
   • The checklist of points the building is designed to achieve
   • The required Quick Start fee (65% of building permit)

After construction and occupancy, when LEED certification is achieved, the applicant must present the certificate from the USGBC to confirm the level of achievement.

Application for the rebate must be made within 90 days of the date of certification.

We are consistently completing commercial plan reviews within a record setting eleven days; however the elimination of another eleven-day cycle can save interim financing and other costs for the builder. Allowing broader access to the program and rebating the additional charge is a significant benefit to those who undertake the worthy goal of LEED construction and operation.

The costs that are saved to the builders are an attractive incentive to encourage Houston business and industry leaders to build LEED certified buildings.