Development Services director outlines permit workload, electronic review gains and building-fund funding shifts

Anthea Gignotis, director of Development Services, told the Delray Beach City Commission at a budget workshop April 22 that her department performed thousands of permit reviews and inspections last year and has completed a transition to fully electronic building-permit submissions.

Gignotis said the department issues roughly 6,500 permits annually that generate about 10,500 reviews and more than 25,000 on-site inspections. She said permit valuation totals currently show nearly $29 million in industrial and commercial permit value and over $190 million in residential permit value.

The move to an electronic application system, Gignotis said, produced measurable review-time improvements: "the city...achieved over 97% compliance with a 10 day review target. And in fact, the average review period is less than 2 days," she said. She added that one remaining paper submission was received in December but that the department is now handling building permits fully online.

Gignotis described Development Services as four divisions—building, planning and zoning, historic preservation and what she called business services—that together handle plan review, inspections, code and historic reviews, business licensing and public records requests related to development. She said planning and zoning prepares about 175 staff reports and roughly 120 commission items annually and issues about 500 zoning certificates of use per year.

On funding, Gignotis said the building fund is projected to bring in roughly $7.5 million in permit-related revenue in the coming year, with a rollover surplus of about $4 million from prior years. She said roughly $1 million in non-Florida-building-code permit fees are collected through business services and another roughly $500,000 is collected through planning-and-zoning fees. Gignotis said a fee study is underway and that the department is conservative in revenue forecasting.

Gignotis also told commissioners that the city plans to shift the funding of some positions in Public Works, Utilities and Fire that participate in Florida building-code reviews so those roles are partially or fully paid from the building fund rather than the general fund. "Some of the positions in public works, utility, fire and code enforcement...will actually be able to be funded by the building fund," she said, adding the change could lower the general fund burden and, over time, allow fee adjustments.

Gignotis said the fire department currently has a single fire plan reviewer and that she and Chief Martin have discussed adding a second reviewer; she said the increase in that service would be borne by the building fund. She also noted Development Services has been participating in the configuration of new permitting software, and she estimated that programming and testing that system has consumed about 20% of staff time this year.

The commission thanked Gignotis for the presentation and asked staff to continue to provide granular level-of-service information as the budget process continues.

Gignotis closed by noting the department allows staff to scan paper applications for residents who cannot submit online.