Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced the appointment of Deputy Mayor Justin Williams to serve as Baltimore City’s inaugural Director of Permitting and
Development Services, a newly created position designed to streamline development processes as part of the administration’s Bmore FAST initiative.
“I am grateful that Deputy Mayor Justin Williams will be bringing his years of public and private experience to the role of Director of Permitting and Development Services and interim director of Baltimore City Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals (BMZA),” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “As Baltimore is reimagining the how we tackle vacant homes in the city, through a $3 billion investment over the next 15 years, the role of permit czar will play an integral role that will oversee the numerous offices that issue city permits, and Justin with his wealth of knowledge of both city hall, its departments, and his private sector experience, is the right person for this job.”
Williams will also serve as Interim Executive Director of the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals (BMZA), succeeding Rebecca Witt, who resigned earlier this month to take a role in private practice. Williams will assume his new duties immediately while maintaining leadership of BMZA. The Director of Permitting and Development Services position, informally known as “Permit Czar,” represents a cornerstone of the mayor’s office’s comprehensive development reform strategy outlined in the recently released Bmore FAST report, which was recently covered on the blog.
The role represents the first phase of potential organizational reforms outlined in the Bmore FAST report, which envisions the possible creation of a dedicated Development Services Coordination Office and longer-term evaluation of consolidating development functions into a unified department. See the full press release
