04/10/1989 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e II. INFORMATION ON BUILDING PERMIT SERVICES Planning, Development, and Building Director Abe Farkas introduced Bill Johnson, chair of the Building Construction Advisory Committee (BCAC). The BCAC advises the City Manager on the building permit review process. Terri Vanderpool, Planning, Development, and Building Department staff, explained that the building permit review process has two "loopSIl: the site loop, during which issues relating to land use and site development are considered; and the structural loop, during which bUilding construction issues are reviewed. She mentioned the three components of building permit services: customer assistance, plan review, and field inspection. e Ms. Vanderpool provided some information on building permit review activity levels over the past several years. There was an unusually high level of construction from 1977 to 1979. The current permit volume is almost as high. Moreover, commercial development plans (which are much more complex than residential plans) account for a larger share of the volume now than they did from 1977 to 1979; thus, the actual amount of plan review activity is greater than it was from 1977 to 1979. Ms. Vanderpool also compared 1979 and current turnaround times. In 1979, from the time a set of plans was submitted until the time the review by the code analyst (the last stage in the review process) began, four to six weeks had elapsed. Currently, the average time before the code analyst review begins is three to four weeks. In order to realize the current turnaround goal (three "netll weeks, 90 percent of the time), the average time before the code analyst review would have to be reduced to two weeks or less. In summary, Ms. Vanderpool said that roughly the same number of plans--but more complex plans--are being reviewed in a shorter time now than in 1979. Ms. Vanderpool also provided information on customer assistance activity levels and service levels over the last ten years. She explained that customer counts in the PIC were up 20 percent in the 1988 construction season over the previous year. This is significant because the same staff members who provide customer assistance also provide building permit plans review services. With activity levels significantly higher in both service areas, staff members are having a difficult time meeting service level expectations. In order to deal with this issue, staff and the BCAC are working on a staff resource allocation policy. Mr. Johnson said that last fall, City Councilors brought to staff's attention several examples of problematic building permit reviews. These examples and a few others were used by staff to conduct a detailed case study of the building permit review process. Mr. Smith reported on the findings of the case study: inadequate staffing caused some delays; the submission of inadequate, incomplete, or incorrect plans was the most significant cause of delay; there is no policy for allocating resources among the building permit services; and staff does not have an established regulatory profile or philosophy. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 10, 1989 Page 3