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City moves to speed permitting, proposes small-scale and PUD/PDD code changes to encourage redevelopment
Summary
City staff outlined immediate fixes to electronic plan review delays and proposed code amendments — including expanding the small-scale site-plan definition and lowering PUD/PDD minimum tract sizes — to ease redevelopment and reduce review time.
City staff presented a slate of near-term fixes and proposed code changes Tuesday intended to shorten permitting timelines and help small redevelopment projects move forward.
City Manager Mark Lobelski and Community Development staff told the commission the move toward fully electronic plan submission revealed unanticipated intake and backend review bottlenecks. Lobelski said electronic submissions can be made 24/7, but staff must review each attachment page for legibility, correct naming and fee calculation before accepting an application; that intake step is currently taking about three to seven days in many cases. Lobelski said staff’s goal is to reduce the initial intake delay to a 24-hour target where feasible.
To address the immediate problem staff temporarily reallocated a building-division administrative officer to intake work and is hiring a temporary specialist to assist with electronic-plan intake and backend review. Staff also asked IT for reporting tools to track intake and back-end metrics so leadership can monitor progress and brought forward two scheduled system upgrades to reduce integration latency between EnerGov and third-party plan-review modules.
On process changes, staff said they will implement a concurrent review model for most building permits so planning, engineering and landscaping reviews occur alongside building plan review rather than sequentially. The change is expected to cut overall review times roughly in half; staff projects the revised target review time will be about 21 days for many building permits. Staff said that change should be implemented within 30 days.
For longer-term improvements staff proposed budgeting for either expanded permanent intake staff or sustained temporary support, evaluating a cloud-based EnerGov deployment to ensure more timely software updates, and testing alternate plan-review tools (staff cited Bluebeam as an existing tool and said other products are under review).
The presentation also proposed two code amendments intended to remove minor procedural obstacles to redevelopment: - Increase the small-scale site-plan threshold from 1 acre to 2 acres so more small projects can be handled administratively rather than requiring commission action. The definition otherwise remains the same (fewer than 50 dwelling units, under 20,000 square feet of nonresidential use, no concurrent land-use applications). Since August 2024 only three applications would have qualified under the prior one-acre threshold; staff expects the change to capture a modest additional number of projects. - Reduce the minimum tract size for planned unit development (PUD) and planned development district (PDD) approvals from 10 acres to 8 acres. Staff said the smaller threshold reflects the scarcity of large vacant tracts and would make a small number of redevelopment parcels eligible for PUD/PDD review while retaining full commission oversight for those projects.
Staff said they will monitor the effectiveness of temporary staffing and report back during the budget cycle if permanent positions are needed. Lobelski told commissioners the staff will return with the draft code amendments in the next 60 to 90 days for commission consideration.
Ending: Commissioners praised the staff for diagnosing the problems, urged a strong emphasis on user-facing materials (how-to videos and better intake guidance) and asked staff to bring metrics that show whether the temporary steps achieve the 24-hour intake goal before the commission considers permanent budget changes.
