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Bozeman unveils public building-permit dashboard covering permits since Jan. 1, 2020
Summary
City staff demonstrated a new interactive building-permit dashboard that will publish on the City of Bozeman website; the tool displays permits back to Jan. 1, 2020, includes permit types and inspection counts, and omits certificates of occupancy.
Bozeman Community Development staff on May 5 demonstrated a new public building-permit data dashboard that will publish on the City of Bozeman website and display permit records dating back to Jan. 1, 2020.
The dashboard is intended to let residents and professionals view where permits have been issued, filter by date and permit type, and access tabular reports and tutorial materials. Chris Saunders, community development staff, said, “this goes back to January 1 of 20 20 and then comes forward.”
City staff told the Bozeman Community Development Board the dashboard is built from the city’s building-permit system and GIS data. Saunders demonstrated map controls, base-layer imagery choices and a filter box that narrows results by date, permit type and location. He noted the display uses equal-sized map points rather than sizing symbols by project scale: "we did tinker around a little bit with trying to make these different sizes based on number of homes and there were some limitations in the software... so, they are just the same size dots for each kind of thing." The dashboard also shows an inspection counter tied to permits.
Board members asked what the dashboard does and does not include. Saunders said certificates of occupancy are not included, citing variability in which projects require them: “It is not, for a couple of reasons. 1 is for certain kinds of projects, they don't need them.” He reiterated that a permit record on the system generally represents a substantial investment and that “in the vast, vast, vast majority of cases [permits] result in built structures.”
Staff and board members discussed what the dashboard can and cannot show about projects in progress. Saunders said the dashboard is not a direct work-in-progress tracker for every application: the underlying building-permit database is complex and staff rely on IT for more detailed queued-work reports. He described the dashboard’s primary value as giving the public faster, self-service access to permit locations, types and dates without filing records requests.
Saunders said the dashboard was intended to publish the evening after the board demonstration; when he checked the site prior to the May 5 meeting it had not yet appeared. He said when it publishes it will be accessible from the City of Bozeman community development pages and include a video tutorial and downloadable tabular reports.
The board did not take formal action on the dashboard. Several members thanked staff for the work and asked staff to monitor public feedback after launch.
