Streamlined permitting: A plan shaped by business, for business
How These Recommendations Were Developed
- Commissioners, deputy mayor began holding bi-monthly meetings with contractor and developer/owner focus groups to collect feedback and apprise of status (Jan. - ongoing)
- Developed satisfaction survey based on focus group input
- Sent to ABC, BCA, focus groups to develop baseline
- Posted on web pages of departments involved in process
- 80 responses as of May 31st 2011
- Will provide baseline for future measurements
- Now on all web pages, in paper copy at front desks
- Internal process meetings to review results and develop action plans
- Building Commission held special meeting to collect input from contractors;
- Approximately 40 in attendance
- documented that feedback (April)
- Another meeting being planned
- Researched best practices (Oct-ongoing)
- White papers, conference calls with Evansville and Austin, online websites, visit to Indianapolis/Marion County developer meeting
8% of the permits issued from 2008-2010 resulted in 65% of the dollars invested. This proposal was shaped by that 8%, but will ensure a better experience for everyone.
This investment represents less than .5% of the annual revenue during a period of lower starts due to the recession. This project will help position us for the improving economy.
What the development community told us
- A culture change is necessary to improve customer service
- We suffer from a lack of consistency both in application and interpretation of rules between departments and sometimes even between projects
- We do not provide regular, predictable communication of changes and rules
- We do not provide what has become de rigueur in other industries
- Conducting business online
- Good communication skills
- There is a feeling that people are punished if a complaint is lodged
- It is difficult to contact people when there are questions, causing delays
- There is no recourse when one disagrees with a decision
- Personal relationships are important to have if you want to be successful.
- The ordinances/resolutions/statutes are burdensome / hard to keep up with / confusion over what is required or desired
- Many permits and departments (19) that need to touch a complex project
| Issues Surfaced | Solutions identified | Budget |
|
Interpretation of rules between departments and sometimes even between projects is inconsistent |
A comprehensive look at processes across all departments involved in development process is needed to provide consistency, performance metrics, and transparency of decisions. Customer service culture change. |
$150K Program Management (process engineering and project management: ) $50K Customer service/ culture change |
|
Conduct more business online; i.e. check status, pay, get updates on changes, print permits, request and schedule services; Communicate changes more predictably; Respond to questions more quickly |
|
Software / Web development $75K Accela Licenses $380K Contingency $85K |
|
There is no recourse when things go awry; Personal relationships are paramount for success; Culture of customer service is missing |
|
Development Expeditor Function $160K |
|
Ordinances are burdensome, confusing; too many permits; lots of overlap |
Speed the ongoing project to clean up, align ordinances by adding resources temporarily; determine how many and which permits are overlapped, outdated, not needed etc. |
Permitting Review and Re-codification /Ordinance initiative $500K |
|
Total budget amounts to $1.4M to be equally shared between city and county |
||
Timeline, costs and metrics
| Budget | Timeframe | |
|
*Software Licenses |
$380K |
Month 1 |
|
*Project & Process Mgmt |
$150K |
Month 1 - Month 18 |
|
*Service Training |
$50K |
Month 1 - Month 18 |
|
*Web Portal |
$75K |
Month 1 - Month 6 |
|
Expediter Function |
$160K |
Month 1 - Month 12 |
|
*Ordinance/Permit Clean |
$500K |
Month 1 - Month 18 |
|
*Contingency |
$85K |
Month 1 - Month 18 |
* denotes a one time cost
Benchmarks: Outcomes and Goals
- Decrease dissatisfaction metric to below 30% for each question asked on survey in 9 months, 20% in 15 months and 10% in 24 months.
- Fully deploy customer-facing technology to facilitate all facets of the permitting process in 18 months. Apply, submit, review, pay online
- Streamline the approval process for permits that are taking more that 24 hours. Decrease the amount of time by 20% in 12 months and 25% in 24 months.
- Reduce the number of redundant and unnecessary ordinances, the number of which to be determined within 4 months of ordinance sub-project kickoff.
- County economic growth to exceed state's average by 1% in two years from date of completion.
