Yavapai County reports faster permit reviews, new instant-permit pilot and growth in ‘Home of My Own’ program

Yavapai County Development Services reported improvements in permitting speed and a set of operational pilots to supervisors during a joint Planning & Zoning and Board of Supervisors session March 27.

Director Jeremy Dye told the board that average first-review turnaround across permit types is now roughly three weeks and that several operational changes — including staffing, process streamlining and a remote-inspection program — helped cut a backlog of septic reviews that at one point stretched to six months down to about one week.

“We’ve got them down to three weeks for all of our permit types,” Dye said. He added that remote video inspections and other process changes were intended to “look for ways to really improve our processes and make things easier for the public.”

Nut graf: The update outlined both near-term pilots and longer projects that affect property owners and contractors across unincorporated Yavapai County: an “instant” online permit option for simple work, expanded video inspections to reduce long rural drive times, ongoing adoption of updated state building codes and a county housing program that supplies…