E-Permitting? E-Plan Reviews? Other?
paperless, electronic plan reviews, e-gov, online plan reviews
Consider the following streamlining savings: (Excerpt from ALLIANCE FOR BUILDING REGULATORY REFORM IN THE DIGITAL AGE)
e-Permit Processing
- now used in over 500 jurisdictions across the nation ranging in population from Los Angeles (3,695,000) to Cobleskill, NY (5,300) reduce staff and building owner/architect times to process permits by between 30 – 40%
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems in Shelby Co., TN; Orlando, FL and Washington Co., OR reduce the time to schedule and conduct inspections from 2-3 days to less than 24 hours.
Mobile field inspection technology
- being used in cities including Phoenix, AZ; San Dimas, CA increase the number of inspections performed per day by 25% and reduce contractor down time waiting for inspections and their results by 20%.
e-Plan Review(s)
- now being conducted in: Atlanta, GA; Bend, OR; Maricopa Co., AZ;
- and a dozen other jurisdictions reduce the amount of time it takes to review plans by 40%, eliminate lost plans, and reduce by 80% the number of trips to these jurisdictions by out of state owners/architects.
- Lastly,
streamlined processes
- are getting buildings up and open faster, putting both people to work and revenues into the jurisdiction’s coffers sooner; for example a 200 room hotel open just 3 months earlier using streamlined processes with an 80% occupancy = $144,000 in added tax revenues to a jurisdiction just from the 10% occupancy tax on $100/night rooms.While many communities are talking about having “shovel ready” projects for receipt of Federal and state economic stimulus funding in 2009, is the jurisdiction where you work as a building or land use official, an elected official or where your next construction project is going to be built “Regulatory Ready”?
Construction jobs are on the increase.
It may be surprising news to some but according to an 8/5/11 AGC quote in the Dept of Occupational, Health and Safety’s online newletter: “US Construction jobs are on the rise… It is encouraging that the construction industry has added 54,000 jobs -— or 1 percent -— since hitting bottom last January,” Simonson said in AGC’s Aug. 5 news release.
It is not clear where in the US these increases have taken place but it is certain that construction increases are not spread evenly across the country.
It appears that some of the more forward looking municipalities are using this time to seek better system and services options. Online services are one option- Think low/no upfront costs, outsourcing work on an as need basis, etc. Check out one cost effective online e-plan review service offering grants to munis, free startup and trials.
Annexation will force county to operate smarter
Forecast for Snohomish County Building Permits
In April, the City of Lynnwood, Wa starting receiving and reviewing plans electronically. Recently Integrus Architects of Seattle electronically submitted building plans to Lynnwood for Meadowdale Middle School. To submit the plans Integrus personel used Lynnwood’s Egov Plansubmit portal.
I thought it would be interesting to do a case study comparing the electronic submittal of these plans to that of a paper submittal. Before Lynnwood adopted electronic submittal of plans they required 4 full sets of plans and specs plus 2 additional sets of civil and landscape plans.
For Meadowdale Middle School the actual pages totaled slightly less than 20,000 going on the assumption that the city would required 1/2 of the plans to be resubmitted for approval.
Aside from saving alot of paper (whatever the resubmittal requirement), it only took Integrus personel about 30 minutes to submit the full set of PDF plans.
The submittal cost was $3.50/page for drawings and $30 for unlimited pages of specs and no cost for resubmittals. To calculate the cost of paper it is neccessary to know the printing costs and printing cost can vary alot. I called various architects and found that they charge their clients anywhere between $3.00 to $5.00 per page. If the printing is outsourced to others the cheapest price in the Seattle area that I found is Bill’s Blueprint in Everett. They charge $1.44/page for 24×36 drawings.
Kinko charges $4.50/page.– But wait. How many sets of plans need to be submitted- 4 plus. Bottom-line: Edmonds School District conservatively saved between $2,500 and $4,500 by submitting electronically for this one project alone. It is pretty much a no brainer to submit electronically if possible. Here’s the catch in the Seattle Area— Only Mill Creek, Lynnwood and Mercer Island review plans electronically so far. I have it on good authority that Shoreline, Puyallup and others are seriously looking into this option.
Later we will look at turn-around time on a review. It is common knowledge that electrons are blazing fast compared to cars and walking. Does any of this blazing speed translate into more efficient reviews?
