I used to take minutes for a planning and zoning commission for a small mountain town, and I agree, there is either 0 opposition or the whole team of people willing to die on their hill. It's nice to see how involved a community is, though the influence of local newspapers definitely sways how...
I've been at a few Community Development Departments over the past few years and it always seems like there is a stagnation in the permit tech position. The only growth I've seen has been to become a plans reviewer, but not everyone is interested in Code analysis/compliance. Do other...
8-10 weeks for minor permits, 14-16 weeks for major permits. Not including time for comments/additional review rounds. Full timeline estimates for all permits found here.
We are rolling out more permits that will forego the permit review process, but cannot be called an "over the counter" permit, as it will still need to be reviewed for completeness by a permit tech and the applicant will need to submit a specific affidavit outlining rules and expectations of the...
We have a permit timeline page to give the public estimates of how long the process will take. The page is updated quarterly.
https://aspen.gov/244/Building-Permit-Timelines
Compared to other jurisdictions, we are pretty slow, but that's mainly due to our strict Code (goes beyond ICC...
That's an awesome idea, I'll pose it at our next meeting, thank you! I like the continuous aspect of it and if you can't make one, can you attend the next. Thank you!
Here in Aspen, we use Salesforce. It's pretty good, but we have to have multiple 3rd party vendors to handle the customizations we've implemented. Working with all of them can be expensive and a pain whenever we want to change anything, but we have good functionality.
We are going to roll out improved interface with our permit portal within the next year and we are looking for better ways to get engagement from our users (mostly contractors). We will have a survey that we will send out in emails and will host a community meeting in November, but due to past...
We currently have pre-submittal meetings required for expedited permits, but optional for all other building permits. During the 1-hour meeting, a plans reviewer and zoning officer look over the proposed plans, answer any questions the applicant has and informs them of our submittal standards...
We have our permit timeline estimation page updated quarterly for the public to see and we update our customers with our newsletter quarterly too. If they complain about how long it is taking, we inform them that for major permits, any projects that are fully electric or provide affordable...
My department's approach was to create a new FTE position specifically for updating our permitting process. It's too much to put it on one person and there is no one-size-fits-all solution; it must be tailored to your jurisdiction/department. So far there are a lot of internal meetings and...
One of the low hanging fruits for improving our permitting process would be to implement over-the-counter (OTC) permits. So far we are wanting to pursue like-for-like windows and doors and we are looking into the feasibility of an OTC re-roof permit. What other OTC permits do other jurisdictions...
I was just promoted from building admin to our version of a permit tech! Aside from permit intake, my next primary duty is to implement process improvements and enhance our permitting process. I am looking forward to learning about how other communities go about permitting.