It’s the same story – developers face permit delays from city planning and review departments because they are understaffed and under resourced. Even in cities where development is booming, investors lose confidence as projects are held up with each permit required. Reviews can involve multiple city departments, including zoning, planning, preservation, architectural review commission, land use administration, public works and more as well as outside reviews by utilities.
And as developers wait while overwhelmed cities review applications, they lose revenues and costs go up with loan interest payments, insurance and more. For small businesses and entrepreneurs, a delay of a few months can make or break their endeavors and put them at personal financial risk.
Planning department bottlenecks can occur because of ineffective processes, misallocation of resources or slow-to-implement technology upgrades. Follow these task coordination strategies to address permit backlogs, or increase caseloads and gain the confidence of developers and investors. By putting these backlog strategies in the building department tool kit, cities can be better prepared when they are in the weeds with permit applications, or if they are pushing to raise the bar in work flows.
#1 Make the Permit Process Crystal Clear
Streamline the registration process for key development permits so developers know what is needed to complete an application and when. There’s little worse than poor communication being a primary cause for permit or inspection delays. By increasing coordination with agencies and utilities outside the building department to understand their review processes, a city can better communicate requirements at the outset of development requests.
#2 Implement or Expand Digital Permitting Systems
Cities can reduce time spent back and forth with developers on their permit loads with electronic permitting systems. Digital permitting systems allow various agencies to share documents electronically, improving efficiency and response times. If parking at city offices is limited, developers will prefer to communicate electronically -- and appreciate the faster response times.
#3 Track Progress of Open Permit Applications with Analytics
When a city staff of limited numbers is juggling thousands of permits, it’s hard to know the status of an individual request. Electronic tracking of inspections and reviews gives insight into how long requests and tasks have been in the system, and can be prioritized or managed in a more time-sensitive manner. The tool can also improve customer service response and better communicate overall backlog needs to the city manager’s office.
#4 Outsource During Periods of High Volume
If there is usually a line usually outside the permitting office, and staffers work through their lunch every day, call for backup. Talent is essential – from staff that conducts site plan reviews, inspectors in the construction division, code enforcement professionals and more. But even the best staff will be limited by process inefficiencies. Outsourcing reviews to qualified professionals or requesting budget to cover upticks in processing permit requests, will not only make developers happy, but it results in increased tax revenues for the city. Other options include allowing developers to pay overtime for expedited permit reviews, temporarily reassigning city staff where it’s possible to recon backlogs or providing mobile communications to certain staff, like inspectors, to make approvals faster.
#5 Support Common Sense
The attitude that “this is the way we have always done it” doesn’t work for a developer because it doesn’t work for their bank. If staff is talented, but processes are inefficient, improve the processes. Even the highest quality staff will be limited by outdated systems overwhelmed with requests and a management structure that makes excuses rather than improvements. Another way common sense can reduce the backlog is to seek ordinance changes. Is there an ordinance that limits housing size or encroachment in certain neighborhoods that can be simplified? Updated zoning can reduce the need for individual variances.
To learn more about strategies that reduce development backlogs, such as expedited reviews for desirable housing proposals, review and download the National Association of Home Builders “Development Process Efficiency: Cutting Through the Red Tape” report with case studies:
Development Process Efficiency (2) by Ed Praetorian on Scribd
