Visualizations:
Land Use Review.
City Approval Times:
Questions and Visualizations
How long does it take to obtain land use approval?
To help answer that, here are some numbers.
These are meant to summarize 10 years of land use review application data.
From 2010 to 2020, obtaining land use approval took a median of about
5.7
months.
The bottom 25% of applications took less than
3.8
months . . .
. . . while the top 25% of applications took over
8.6
months.
Does land use approval time vary by neighborhood?
To help answer that, look below for a series of visualizations highlighting discrepancies in land use approval times across Portland.
A green dot means that developments in the area of the dot receive city issuance faster than the median. A yellow dot means that that it is around the median. A red dot means it is below the median.
When taking all of Portland into account, issuance time for building permits is about 5.7 months [see above]. However, we can observe differences by quadrant and neighborhood.
In North Portland, it takes a median of
5.2
months.
In Northeast Portland, it takes a median of
4.9
months.
In Northwest Portland, it takes a median of
4.8
months.
In Southeast Portland, it takes a median of
6.1
months.
In Southwest Portland, it takes a median of
7.7
months.
Does the size of the development have any effect on approval time?
To help answer that, here are a series of useful numbers, boxplots, and graphs.
These are meant to summarize 10 years of land use review application data.
Obtaining a land use review approval for one unit or lot took a median of about
3.3
months .
Obtaining approval for 2 to 4 units or lots took
5.7
months .
Obtaining approval for 20 to 100 units or lots took
5.3
months .
Obtaining approval for 5 to 19 units or lots took
6.5
months .
Obtaining approval for over 100 units or lots took
5.2
months.
Understanding This Visual:
Look to the left for several for a series of boxplots, which have been segmented by city quadrant.
Click through using the purple arrows.
Hover over any boxplot to see the median, interquartile values, and more.
How has this changed over the past two decades?
To help answer that, look below for a series of line graphs, numbers, and a histogram. These lines graphs map trends in median land use approval times every six months, every year, and every two years from 2010 to 2019. Additionally, they have been broken down by project size.
We aggregated our data by grouping it by different time intervals and taking the medians of those subsets. The smallest time interval used is six months, intended to show short-term variability in data. To smooth out these short-run irregularities and depict long-term trends, we also used one-year and two-year intervals.
Understanding This Visual:
Look to the right for a series of graphs showing approval times for land use review from 2010 to 2019.
The graph is interactive; feel free to filter as you see fit.
Click through using the purple arrows.
Hover over any point in time to see medians by development size.
A land use review application submitted in the years 2015 to 2019 takes about
31%
longer
than one submitted in the years 2010 to 2014.
Understanding This Visual:
Look to the right for a moving histogram showing the distribution of approval times for land use reviews from 2010 to 2019.
What are the characteristics of areas that take more or less time to obtain approval?
To help answer that, here is are some maps. We have visualized not only land use approval times but also census data on vulnerability in Portland through these three visuals.
These are meant to summarize 10 years of land use review application data.
Insights
Understanding This Section:
In the process of analyzing, visualizing, and presenting this data--we have learned a lot . Below are some of the most salient insights we have found.
We encourage you not to stop with just the insights we have below, but instead, we ask that you make use of our visualizations and try to find more.
-
The time it takes to obtain city land use approval varies significantly
-
Of all sections of the city, new homes in Southwest Portland take the longest time to obtain land use approval
-
Of all sections of the city, new homes in Northwest Portland take the smallest time to obtain land use approval
-
Obtaining approval for a 5 to 19 unit development takes the longest time
-
Across the board, obtaining a land use permit takes longer today than it did five years ago
-
Average land use approval times are slower in more vulnerable, diverse, and low-income areas
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Average land use approval times are significantly faster in more secure, less diverse and higher income areas