The Shadow
RICHMOND, VA (VR) – Governor Glenn Youngkin announced the expansion of the Virginia Permit Transparency (VPT) website, an online resource featuring the vast majority of permit applications considered by Virginia agencies.
“The expansion of the Virginia Permit Transparency website reaffirms our ongoing commitment to enhancing government transparency and ensuring it serves all Virginians effectively,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “The latest expansion of the VPT website innovates the permit application process by prioritizing accessibility and efficiency. It enables agencies to monitor the duration of each step and identify opportunities to expedite the permitting process for Virginians.”
“VPT is a game changer for Virginia businesses and citizens as well as state agencies,” said Director of the Office of Regulatory Management Reeve Bull. “It brings an unprecedented level of transparency to the permitting process and is already making life much easier for anyone tracking a Virginia permit.”
VPT provides the public with a centralized platform to track the daily status and timeline of critical steps for Commonwealth of Virginia permits. Users can search permit applications or filter results by fields such as agency, application number, locality, and more. VPT can be accessed at Permits.Virginia.Gov.
VPT allows agencies to track how long each step of the process is taking. The Department of Environmental Quality, which first developed the pilot program that VPT is based on, already has reduced its average permit processing time by over 70% since 2022. VPT will enable other participating agencies to identify opportunities for improvement in permitting time as well.
VPT launched with three agencies (Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Virginia Marine Resources Commission, and Department of Energy) earlier this year. With this expansion, it now also includes permits from the Department of Health, Department of Transportation, and Department of Conservation and Recreation. With the new agencies added, Virginia citizens will now have access to more than 100,000 permits issued by these six agencies every year.
With this expansion, Virginia is again proving to be a trendsetter in the regulatory modernization space. No other state government nor federal agency offers anything nearly as comprehensive. The DEQ pilot program that inspired VPT has won several awards, and prominent commentators have praised VPT for its accessibility and user-friendliness.
