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Corcoran considers automation, new software and modest hires to ease planning and permitting backlog
Summary
City staff outlined short‑ and medium‑term steps—adding administrative help, evaluating BSNA/Granicus/Laserfiche and exploring AI plan‑review—to address permitting delays and staff capacity limits.
Corcoran City staff reported incremental staffing gains and a program of software and process changes intended to reduce permit backlogs and improve internal response times, while noting physical office constraints and the cost tradeoffs of automation versus additional personnel.
Why it matters: Timelier permitting and clearer processes were framed as necessary to support market‑driven growth and to reduce developer and resident frustration; several departments reported multi‑day response lags due to meeting workloads.
Staff described concrete capacity steps already taken: hiring an administrative assistant to free planners for technical work; implementing payroll scheduling automation that staff estimated saved two to three hours per payroll run; and moving toward electronic payment methods (ACH/EFT/credit cards) for smaller vendors to speed vendor payments.
Software and process options discussed included the present VSNA (bond module) usage for escrows, cloud migration for permitting systems, and off‑the‑shelf products such as Granicus and Laserfiche for meeting and records management. Staff raised the prospect of AI‑assisted plan review—feeding municipal code and CAD files into an automated reviewer to flag compliance issues—but noted such systems require standardized electronic submissions and a software investment. A back‑of‑the‑envelope example figure of $40,000 was mentioned in discussion as an illustrative cost for a software upgrade, and staff contrasted that with recurring full‑time employee costs.
Constraints identified included limited office space (no immediate desk space for additional planners) and the time required to evaluate and implement new systems. No procurement or capital budget was approved at the meeting; staff were asked to continue scoping software options and present cost/benefit information.
