Cda Remodels Permit Process Regulatory Offices To Move Under One Roof

The city is creating a one-stop shop for building permits and will appoint a growth management chief to run the operation.

“One of the frustrations I’ve heard over and over is that people are chasing the permit around the city,” Mayor Steve Judy said Wednesday morning in announcing the change.

Six departments, only three of them at City Hall, now review and approve an application for a new construction or remodeling project. Those include engineering, the building department, the water department, the waste water department, the planning department and the fire department.

A California-based consultant, hired a year ago for $39,000, recommended 100 changes to the way the city does business with building permit customers, including putting all of the people who review permits in the same place.

Part of the new system will include moving the building inspection department, engineering and planning out of the public works department and placing them under the control of a new growth management director. The city is not creating an additional management position, but rather will convert the slot created by the recent retirement of Chief Building Inspector Mike Jacobs, Judy said.

Recruiting for the new growth management director will start in days. A committee involving city officials, residential and commercial developers will suggest ways of forming the new all-in-one building permit department.

The city then will remodel space at either City Hall or Harbor Center for the new department. That should be done by Oct. 1.

When it’s finished, the city hopes to provide commercial permits in 21 days. The residential permit system appears in better shape. Residential permits now take a maximum of five days, less than the seven day maximum suggested by the consultant.

“It’s a very loose process right now,” Judy said. “We are trying to tighten it up in a way that provides certainty for the customer.”

Public Works Director Rodger Lewerenz will remain in charge of sanitation, sewer, water, streets and vehicle maintenance - which Judy described as more than ample tasks for one person.

The overall cost of making the changes is unknown.

Zucker Systems of California conducted confidential interviews with local builders, architects, city workers and elected officials in the course of developing the recommendations. The harshest criticism appears to center on commercial building permits.

“Commercial developers are very dissatisfied,” the Zucker report said. “Commercial developers are concerned about consistency (and) surprises brought out after initial project review and inspection,” it said.

Still, “the building division often is blamed for problems that occur in other divisions.”