Franklin County adds code-enforcement hire and assistant building official as permitting changes roll out

Franklin County officials announced staffing gains and several process changes aimed at shortening permitting timelines, after residents and developers raised concerns about delays.

County development staff introduced Scott Morris, a new zoning/code enforcement officer with roughly 30 years of law‑enforcement experience, and promoted Daniel Orange to assistant building official. County planners said adding a plan reviewer and restoring simultaneous review across land‑disturbance, stormwater and building reviews should shorten turnaround time for many permits.

County staff told the Board of Supervisors that part of the delay in many residential permit files results from waiting on applicants to supply missing information. Staff said they plan to add time‑and‑date stamping to show when applications go to customers versus when the county has them in hand, and to deploy an online application workflow that enforces required fields before applicants can advance. That is intended to reduce “kicking back” files for incomplete information and cut time while a file is effectively waiting on an applicant.

For larger commercial projects, staff again recommended third‑party plan reviews as an option for applicants that need expedited service. A third‑party vendor, the county said, is paid by the applicant and can perform a quicker, deeper technical review; the county would still approve stamped third‑party reports before issuing permits.

Staff also said it is working with the Virginia Department of Health and has scheduled a meeting with the regional VDH director on April 1 to discuss well and septic approval timelines that have affected building permit issuance. Staff described continuing internal coordination among planning, stormwater and building reviewers to allow simultaneous reviews rather than sequential handoffs.

What it means: With the new staff and planned digital changes, the county expects residential permits that are complete on initial submittal to move faster than before. Staff warned that time spent waiting for applicants — for example, two‑ to three‑week responses from a homeowner — still counts against an application’s overall calendar time even though the county may have been stalled only days.

Staff plans next steps including a timeline for the online filing system and quarterly reporting on permit cycle times to the Board.