Digital Permitting: Building Stronger Communities and Centralizing Asset Data

Permitting is an essential aspect of sustainable growth and community development. As city governments make strides in modernizing how they manage, track and maintain assets, many are finding opportunities to rethink their approach to permitting and community engagement.

Submitting a permit is often laden with paperwork, leading to delays that stall progress and frustrate residents and businesses. Permitting processes that require manual data entry, filing, communication and tracking are inconvenient for applicants and city employees who must spend valuable time on routine tasks that could be automated. Tracking permitting activities and facilitating community engagement can be overwhelming for city governments, especially when workflows are overly complex, demand outpaces resources and communication silos create information gaps.

As rural-to-urban migration and economic opportunities continue to drive growth, municipalities are looking for ways to reimagine traditional methods of public service delivery and modernize processes with technology for more connected communities, efficient operations and better outcomes.

Unlocking Public Access to Permitting Resources

In Rexburg, Idaho, keeping pace with growth means ensuring residents, contractors and businesses have the tools necessary to enrich their city through safe development. Years ago, Rexburg began eliminating paper workflows, transitioning to digital processes and managing assets with technology. Reimagining its paper-intensive and cumbersome permitting process was essential to the city’s long-term vision.

“We wanted to give residents and contractors a convenient and transparent way to access the resources they need to bring their ideas to life,” says Faron Young, asset management system administrator for Rexburg. “Moving away from paper-based workflows was critical in creating the best experience possible for our residents and contractors, supporting our staff, eliminating confusion and streamlining our workflows.”

The city turned to Trimble Cityworks, a GIS-centric solution designed to help organizations manage public assets to digitize and streamline permitting, application and inspection workflows. Rexburg replaced paper-based processes with a public-facing permitting and licensing portal where developers, contractors and residents can submit applications, schedule inspections, pay fees, communicate with the city and track the status of their projects.

“It’s helped us build trust and connect with residents,” Young says. “Automated emails and updates in the public portal ensure transparency and keep customers informed from start to finish. From an internal perspective, having Trimble Cityworks as a single source for organizing and tracking applications, permitting and inspecting data has streamlined workflows and unlocked new levels of efficiency across our team.”

Accelerating Plan Review

City officials integrated Trimble Cityworks with Avolve Software’s DigEplan, a digital solution designed to streamline plan review. Rexburg requires three sets of plans, which are reviewed by multiple people.

“The logistics of passing around three sets of physical 24-inch × 36-inch size plans were cumbersome,” says Bret Stoddard, building official for Rexburg. “We like to keep one set in our permit tech’s hand, leaving two sets to pass between six to eight people. If plans were misplaced, it further stalled reviews.”

Today, developers upload and submit plans using the public portal and download revision and approval reports.

“Developers can access the plans and stay updated on revisions from anywhere, at any time, as long as they have an internet connection,” said Stoddard says. “It provides a straightforward, consistent way to review plans and communicate required revisions and approvals between design professionals and the building department.”

Streamlining Inspections

The transition to digital workflows has also helped Rexburg simplify and streamline inspections.

“We’ve created custom inspection templates that crews complete when performing inspections, and any comments they make are immediately available for office staff, residents and contractors to view,” Young says.

Inspectors can access important information needed to answer questions and schedule daily work. “I can quickly view my assignments to plan my day and ensure other elements, such as electrical and mechanical, have passed inspection before I start,” says Cody Jones, an inspector for Rexburg. “If I show up on a job site and the contractor has a question about the status of his project, I can pull up the permit in Trimble Cityworks and view every inspection that has been approved or failed, as well as the other inspectors’ notes or comments.”

Mapping Data for Insights and Analysis

Geographic information system (GIS) technology is foundational to Rexburg’s permitting, application, and inspection process. With it, the city can analyze location-based data on historical and current licenses, applications and inspections.

“We have an expansive source of historical location-based permitting data that we can easily access, reference and analyze to understand trends and make improvements,” Young says. “We can pull up data on everything done in a specified area to understand a property’s history and existing conditions, such as conditional use permits, sunset clauses, or restrictive lot covenants. Without this easily accessible map layer, it would require a great deal of research to uncover the information.”

Fostering Collaboration, Centralizing Data and Strengthening Communities

Simplifying the permitting process has helped Rexburg establish and build a positive and collaborative relationship with businesses and residents while centralizing data and streamlining workflows. The public-facing portal has promoted transparency, giving residents and businesses access to important tools for completing permitting activities and engaging with the city.

Technology permeates nearly every aspect of our lives, and residents expect public services to be accessible and user-friendly. Modernizing permitting is not just a matter of convenience but also a powerful solution for enhancing economic development, fostering community engagement and increasing public trust.

This article originally appeared in American City & County (July 17, 2024). Republished here with permission.