Technology and smart development can guide America’s 2026 growth
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COMMENTARY | Communities must be equipped with the right tools, practices and processes to manage it correctly, as well as proper staff capacity.
With U.S. population growth continuing to concentrate in fast-growing metro areas and long-term forecasts projecting sustained demand for housing, infrastructure and redevelopment through 2050, the country is clearly heading into another year of strong population and economic momentum.
This momentum is overwhelmingly positive but only if cities are equipped with the tools, staff capacity, and modernized development management practices needed to process it effectively. Growth becomes an opportunity when we prepare for it, not when we struggle to keep up.
What we see consistently is that modernization is the key to unlocking responsible, sustainable growth. Digital permitting and electronic plan review help municipalities deliver faster responses while improving accuracy, transparency, and accountability.
Remote and video inspections reduce construction downtime and give both residents and contractors more flexibility and online systems that verify contractor licensing and insurance protect the public from the long-standing issue of unlicensed or underqualified actors — a challenge communities know all too well.
At the same time, 2026 will bring broader development trends that municipalities must prepare for. Expect a significant push to redevelop aging commercial corridors into mixed-use or residential spaces, especially as available land becomes more limited. Cities will also continue upgrading infrastructure to meet resilience standards and tightening coastal construction requirements.
These shifts will increase the complexity and volume of applications flowing into local building departments, making efficient, technology-enabled review processes more essential than ever.
Emerging tools like AI will support this work by helping architects and engineers submit cleaner plans from the start. While AI will not, and should not, replace the human judgment required for life-safety review, it can reduce code violations before they reach the city and help streamline the most repetitive aspects of the permitting workflow.
While communities are at different stages of their modernization journey, many are thoughtfully evaluating what comes next as demand, complexity, and expectations continue to rise.
Communities across the country are well positioned for this next chapter. By leaning into the successes resulting from outsourcing services and building on those relationships, our municipalities are already exploring new technologies, unified digital workflows, and customer-focused service models. By continuing to invest in modernization and collaborating closely with developers and residents, cities can turn rapid growth into long-term community strength.
America's growth isn’t slowing down; and with the right systems in place, our cities don’t have to either.
Chris Giordano is CEO of SAFEbuilt.