Cincinnati's Permits and Inspections Streamlining Initiative

Buildings & Inspections Department Re-Organization and Permit Streamlining

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Goal

• Streamline the City’s development process to make it easier to do business with the City

Goal

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Comprehensive, Customer Oriented Approach

1. Re-organized and created the Department of Buildings & Inspections

2. Re-designed a modernized Permit Center and are on track to relocate to Centennial II

3. Conducted Focus Groups and two Innovation Lab sessions for detailed process improvement

4. Launched bi-weekly PermitStat management sessions to ensure continued customer orientation

5. Initiated a building permit fee study for customer focused enhancements

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Department Re-Organization

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Building Permit Functions - Previous Structure

Trade & Development Planning & Buildings

Property Maintenance Code Enforcement

Housing

HUD/Grants Monitoring

Economic Development

Downtown

Parking

Fiscal & Operations

BuildingsPlanning

City Planning

Historic Conservation Board Staffing

Plans Examinations

Board of Housing Appeals Staffing

Planning Commission

Staffing

Permit Inspections

Board of Building Appeals Staffing

Customer Service & Intake

Zoning Board of Appeals Staffing

Law

Deputy City Solicitor –

Economic & Community

Development

Land Use & Planning

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Rationalized the Permitting Functions Across the Enterprise

Law

Historic Conservation Board Staffi ng

Board of Housing Appeals Staffing

Board of Building Appeals Staffing

Zoning Board of Appeals Staffing

Deputy City Solicitor –

Economic & Community

Development

Land Use & Planning

Community & Economic Development

Housing

HUD/Grants Monitoring

Economic Development

Downtown

Parking

Fiscal & Operations

Buildings & InspectionsPlanning

City Planning

Plans Examinations

Planning Commission

StaffingInspectionsCustomer Service &

Permit App Intake

Property Maintenance Code Enforcement

Zoning Administration

Permits & Inspections

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Department Re-Organization Highlights

• Reconstituted the Department of Buildings & Inspections and hired critical staff positions

• Recruited and hired Department Director

• Established a Zoning Administration section. Recruited and hired Zoning Administrator

• Consolidated staffing of disparate permit related boards under the Law Department for greater consistency

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Permit Center Re-Design and Re-Location to Centennial II

805 Central Avenue

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Permit Center facility built around customer

• Brand new, easily-accessible facility at a central location

• Dedicated parking for customers

• Close proximity to other departments

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Dedicated Customer Parking on Central Ave.

Permit Center customers from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm

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Employee Parking

• Free parking at the Cutter Street Parking Lot and Town Center Garage for all inspectors that use a personal vehicle for work-related duties

• All other city employees that report to the permit center will be responsible for securing parking for a monthly fee. Options available include the city owned Town Center Garage.

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Co-Located representatives from Fire, Water, MSD, DOTE, Law, and Health

• Efficient co-ordination and smoother customer interactions

• Ensuring all appropriate agencies receive and review plans early in the process

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Communications

• Oct. 19 – Nov 2• Outreach through website, social media, & presentations • Stakeholders in City database receiving e-mail and letters• Stuffers in all outgoing mail • Signage and pamphlets at Permit Center• Engage with media to raise awareness• Internally, communicating with staff in writing and meetings

• Nov 2. – Website, city forms & signage updated with new address.

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Move Timeline

• Communications – Oct. 19 – Nov 2

• Parking Lanes Striped – October 23rd

• Construction Finished – October 30th

• Re-location – November 2nd

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Focus Groups Held for Feedback

• Problems with timeliness of approvals

• Confusion about the process and frustrating experiences with inter-departmental coordination

• Consistency of review standards

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Day 1 Training – Lean Concept and Lean Thinking

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Day 2– Map Current State

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Current State: Red=Problems!

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Day 3– Map Future State

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Current State vs. Future State:Reducing City approval time in half from 10.5 weeks down to 3-5 weeks

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Day 4– Gap Analysis

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Action Plan Highlights1. Ensure “Quality at the Source”

- Application pre-screening to catch common errors

2. Enhanced Pre-Development meetings

3. Ensure All Appropriate Departments Receive Plans early in the process

4. Provide Consolidated Plan Feedback from All Departments

5. Design and Implement Electronic Application, Plan Submittal & Plan Review

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PERMITSTAT

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• Make the process as clear and transparent as possible

• Reduce volume of applications needing revisions

• Ensure all departments receive plans requiring review as early as possible

Ensure Quality at the Source: Pre-Screening

The importance of focusing on “Quality at the Source”: 53 to 80 years of delay time in one calendar year

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CY2014 Project Revisions by Project Type

CommercialTotal Apps

# of Applications 1+ Revisions Total Revisions

Total Revisions to Applications

RatioAlterations 785 328 550 70%

Plumbing Permits 776 0 - 0%Fire Protection Systems 615 113 123 20%

HVAC 418 30 37 9%Repair 273 15 19 7%

Signs 223 68 74 33%Misc. Structures 219 27 38 17%Elevator Permit 122 0 - 0%

Wrecking 88 0 - 0%New Building 51 38 80 157%

Addition 43 35 68 158%Excavation/Fill 21 11 17 81%

Parking Lots 13 9 12 92%

ResidentialTotal Apps

# of Applications 1+ Revisions

Total Revisions

Total Revisions to Applications

RatioHVAC 1605 3 5 0%Plumbing Permits 1503 0 - 0%Alterations 494 137 167 34%Wrecking 255 0 - 0%Repair 251 9 10 4%Misc. Structures 131 20 22 17%New Building 120 75 118 98%Addition 81 37 51 63%Parking Lots 6 2 4 67%Excavation/Fill 5 1 1 20%Signs 1 1 1 100%

Commercial Alteration projects driving the total revisions

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Reviewed & Coded 1000+ Revision Comments to Identify Most Common Rejection Reasons

OBCDESCRIPTION Count % of Total ReferenceConstruction documents. 380 27% Chapter 01-Section 06Doors, gates and turnstiles. 135 9% Chapter 10-Section 08Occupant Load. 59 4% Chapter 10-Section 04Means of egress illumination. 42 3% Chapter 10-Section 06special insoections. 41 3% Chapter 17-Section 04exit enclosures. 36 3% Chapter 05-Section 08

MunicipalDESCRIPTION Count % of Total ReferencePermits. 31 15% Title 11-Chapter 01-Section 17Application for permits. 25 12% Title 11-Chapter 01-Section 19Off Street parking and loading requirements.21 10% Title 14-Chapter 25-Section 19

Parties Entitled to seek variances, special Exceptions and Conditional uses. 9 4% Title 14-Chapter 45-Section 09Specific to transect zones. 7 3% Title 17-Chapter 03-Section 02Zoning hearing examiner. 7 3% Title 14-Chapter 39-Section 07

MechanicalDESCRIPTION Count % of Total ReferenceMechanical Ventillation. 112 51% Chapter 04-Section 03Commercial Kitchen hood ventillation system ducts and exhaust equipment. 20 9% Chapter 05-Section 06Commercial kitchen hoods. 17 8% Chapter 05-Section 07clothes dryer exhaust. 17 8% Chapter 05-Section 04Smoke detections system control. 14 6% Chapter 06-Section 0628

Focused Innovation Lab on Establishing Pre-Screening Process to significantly reduce

revisions

Initial goal of 20% reduction in

revisions over time – 10 to 16 year

reduction in total annual delay time

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Application Prescreen reviewed,

finalized, and implemented

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34 Out of 119 (29%) of Applications were

Corrected at the Front Counter – potentially saving 1.3 – 2 years of

delay time (in 2 weeks of implementation)

2015 09/18/2015 09/24/201509/23/2015 09/30/2015

Pre-Screening Summary# Accepted - No issues 33 49# Corrected - Accepted 15 19# Denied 3 0Total # Checklist 51 68CorrectedWork description incomplete 2 4Current and proposed building use not specific 14 14Existing and proposed building use groups not specific 6 11Excavation and/or fill - cubic yards,borrow site and/or disposal site address not provided 1 1

Initial Results of Pre-Screening Data on Track to Surpass Initial Goal

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Next Steps• Permit Center re-opens at Centennial II

– Communicating to stakeholders - Oct. 19 – Nov 2– Parking Lanes Striped – October 23rd

– Construction Finished – October 30th – Re-location and Launch – November 2nd

• New Buildings Director starts – November 2nd

• Continue to improve intake process and Permit Center customer flow (ongoing)

• Ensure the City provides complete, clear, and consolidated feedback from departments on applications (ongoing)

Buildings & Inspections Department Re-Organization and Permit Streamlining