Mayor backs reform of Pittsburgh inspection, permitting practices

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto wants to transform the city Bureau of Building Inspection into a new Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections. The intention of this effort is to streamline the department and make issuing permits and code enforcement more effective. In a related development, Pittsburgh is attempting to overhaul a dated approach to land use and management. The city, working with a land bank approved by the city council earlier this year, wants to create a new and more efficient entity to hold and return vacant, derelict, and tax-delinquent property to productive to use. 

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