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PERMITTING BEST PRACTICES AND TECHNOLOGYCapitol Region Council of Governments ViewPoint Working Group
November 6, 2015
Jocelyn [email protected]
203-733-2604
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© 2014, Jocelyn Mathiasen
Principles
• Predictable• Consistent• “One city/town” • Proportional• Avoid surprises
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© 2014, Jocelyn Mathiasen
Best Practices in Permitting
At intake, only accept an application if it is complete and ready to be reviewed•Decide what “complete” means •Use clear forms where critical fields are designated and prominent•Train staff to review applications completeness•If possible, have a reviewer scan of each application before acceptance, or at least within a day.•“Guard” but don’t “Bar” the door.
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© 2014, Jocelyn Mathiasen
Best Practices in Permitting
Review simpler projects first - Average plan review time drops when small projects jump the queue.
First In First Out Small Projects First
Hours of Review Required
Day Issued
Hours of Review Required
Day Issued
New commercial building
18 3 Minor renovation 2 1
Minor renovation 2 4 Minor renovation 2 1
Minor renovation 2 4 Minor renovation 2 1
Minor renovation 2 5 Minor renovation 2 2
Minor renovation 2 5 New commercial building
18 4
AVERAGE 4 AVERAGE 2
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© 2014, Jocelyn Mathiasen
Best Practices in Permitting
Assign a lead department and a case manager
• Lead department: identifies which agencies should be involved in review
• Oversees the process to ensure that the permit is moving forward and is not “stuck”
• Consolidates comments from reviewers, including addressing conflicts
• Communicates with the applicant regarding review status
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© 2014, Jocelyn Mathiasen
Best Practices in PermittingUse a Development Review Committee approach
• Development Review Committee should include all agencies involved in review of planning projects – police, fire, engineering, transportation, tree commission, wetlands, etc.
• Agenda produced ahead of time• Reviewers come to the meeting prepared• Calendar should be predictable, with a guarantee that
applications will be looked at if submitted by a set date• Consolidated comments should be provided to applicant
within a few days of DRC meeting
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© 2014, Jocelyn Mathiasen
Best Practices in Permitting
Set deadlines for review by agencies
• Every review agency should have a set time-frame for plan turnaround
• Time-frame is typically 2-3 weeks for input on major projects
• Lead agency has an additional week to consolidate• Mandate may need to come from Chief Executive
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© 2014, Jocelyn Mathiasen
Best Practices in Permitting
Offer (or require) a pre-development conference for both planning and complex building applications
• Use DRC committee membership• Agenda produced ahead of time• Submittal should include complete site plan but omit
expensive engineering analysis• Comments provided in writing but with a caveat that
they are preliminary • Consider requiring and/or charging for some projects
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© 2014, Jocelyn Mathiasen
Best Practices in Permitting
For resubmittals, review should focus only on whether comments have been addressed.
•New issues should not be identified unless they are critical to life-safety or arise due to plan changes that were made between the initial and second submission.
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© 2014, Jocelyn Mathiasen
Best Practices Project Flow
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© 2014, Jocelyn Mathiasen
Technology’s role • Electronic and paper form design – make sure important
items come first and are mandatory. Omit superfluous fields.
• Predictability – print out a list of required reviewers.• Priorities –review and assign projects as they come in
based on complexity• Public access –all reviewers must post comments on-line.
• Encourage the public to check for comments
• Centralized plans – post the “official” plans (in PDF format) for all reviewers to see. Can use intranet, internet, or Dropbox. Explore options for electronic mark-up.
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© 2014, Jocelyn Mathiasen
Technology …• Use GoToMeeting or other means for DRC meeting.• Consolidated comments – post consolidated comments
on-line and provide a Word document for the applicant.• Print out all “conditions of approval” with the permit or land
use approval, if possible as a 2nd page go the permit form.• Allow for easy scheduling of inspections, via IVR or
internet. Best practice = next day inspections.• Use photographs in lieu of re-inspections.• Post inspection every day, and have people go on-line to
see where they are in the lineup.
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