OBTAINING BUILDING permits in Baltimore is so cumbersome that even a simplified consumer guide to the procedures contains 38 pages.

It takes 32 additional pages to explain rules and regulations for land subdivision. And no wonder: In the Public Works Department alone, applications may have to be approved by as many as 11 divisions.

As a result, a peculiar cottage industry has emerged. Major developers hire private expediters to cut the red tape. They hand-carry applications from one city office to another and generally keep track of the paperwork's progress.

The city is now trying to streamline this bewildering process.

A long-awaited one-stop shop for handling routine permits should open in December in the Benton Building, near City Hall. Application forms should also soon be available online.

But much more needs to be done to speed up things. In particular, the 31-year-old zoning code needs urgent revision.

As the code has become outdated, developers -- and the city itself -- have "fashioned increasingly complex methods of circumventing provisions that are no longer relevant," a recent Planning Department report said.

Even then, applications for zoning variances can take nearly a year: City Council bills have to be introduced, at least two sets of separate -- but overlapping -- hearings held, and so on. All of this tends to dampen investors' interest in complicated projects in the city.

Baltimore, which has lost one-third of its population since 1950, can't afford these kinds of unnecessary bureaucratic barriers. Investors will continue to take their money elsewhere if the city is not more welcoming.

Two mayors, Kurt Schmoke and now Martin O'Malley, have recognized this. But it seems these matters take longer to correct than anyone expects. Everywhere. A recent reform of zoning laws in New Orleans took nearly 10 years to complete.

Consultant Ellen Nutter has made excellent initial progress in reworking zoning rules here. But with the planning director, Charles C. Graves III, now departing for Atlanta, a search for his successor could throw the whole process into uncertainty.

Even under the best circumstances, new zoning rules are not expected to be completed until the summer of 2006. And that's the good news.

Beyond that, no further delay should be tolerated. Simplified development processes are key to Baltimore's growth and future viability.