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York County planning staff outline customer‑service overhaul, outreach and AI exploration
Summary
Planning and Development Services told council Sept. 9 it is rewriting its customer bill of rights, expanding staff training and outreach to HOAs, planning a lobby renovation and preparing an online customer survey; county IT said it is exploring an internal AI tool to answer public questions.
Tom Couch, Assistant County Manager for Development Services, briefed the York County Council Sept. 9 on Planning and Development Services’ (PDS) initiatives to improve customer service, communications and community outreach.
Couch told members the department is revising its customer bill of rights to focus on staff responsibilities and reduce technical jargon, intends to post the bill prominently in the lobby and plans to rollout an online customer survey after final review at a PDS management meeting next week. “We’re trying to take away customer responsibilities, and we’re gonna focus instead on what the department’s responsibilities are,” Couch said.
PDS described ongoing staff training, including recent empathy and role‑playing sessions in an all‑staff meeting, a planner‑on‑duty program to ensure technical coverage at the customer counter, and plans to reconfigure the customer lobby to reduce physical barriers between staff and customers. Couch said PDS staff also plan targeted outreach: stormwater staff will run HOA training sessions in late September to clarify HOA maintenance obligations under the county’s stormwater code, and staff will meet with land surveyors and the Home Builders Association on topic‑specific sessions.
Council members asked about the survey rollout and online access. Couch said the survey timing will be finalized shortly and that the department will post the customer bill of rights in the lobby and make the survey readily available to visitors. On web‑based assistance, an IT staff member told the council the county is “developing an internal AI environment for the county to use, and also exploring methods that we could incorporate that into our website” to answer commonly asked questions by querying ordinances and documentation.
No formal actions were taken; council members asked staff to share the finalized survey rollout plan and to notify council when the customer‑service improvements and lobby changes are scheduled. PDS said it will continue community outreach and report back on progress.
