RER presents Gold Key permitting metrics; committee encouraged wider digitization and delegation of septic reviews

The Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources (RER) briefed the Government Efficiency & Transparency Ad Hoc Committee on March 13 about efforts to speed permitting, increase transparency and expand digital tools countywide.

RER described Gold Key, an in‑house permitting platform the department uses to manage electronic intake, concurrent plan review, inspections and reporting. Presenters said Gold Key now captures a high volume of activity and provides daily “late plan” reports that managers use to balance reviewer workloads.

Key points from the presentation:

- System and metrics: RER reported the Gold Key system registers more than 1.6 million activities annually and supports hundreds of thousands of plan reviews. The department cited roughly 600,000 initial plan reviews and more than 400,000 rework reviews across permitting work captured in the system. Building permits for the year numbered about 58,000, with roughly 11,000 issued through the system’s programmatic (pre‑approved) workflow. RER said programmatic reviews provide a quick, automated route for widely used product types and routine trade permits.

- Review timelines and concurrent review: RER said plan reviews run concurrently across trades and reported average turnaround targets of five business days for residential reviews and ten business days for commercial reviews. Presenters emphasized that concurrent review and transparency in Gold Key enable users to see the reviewer, disposition and comments in real time.

- Delegation and septic reviews: RER said it is working with the Florida Department of Health to seek delegation of septic reviews; staff said they expect to pursue a delegation that could be implemented in the fall (presenters mentioned an October 1 target) in order to shorten processing times for septic‑related reviews.

- Staffing and co‑location: RER moved about 50 Durham staff to the West Aide permit center to co‑locate sewer‑ and wastewater‑related staff with the main permit intake area. RER said co‑location, additional staffing and use of contract reviewers are intended to reduce bottlenecks for sewer, drainage and other specialized reviews.

- Virtual inspections and on‑demand services: The department described continued use of virtual inspections (initiated during the COVID shutdown) and an on‑demand same‑day virtual inspection queue. RER said approximately 10% of inspection volume is virtual and that the on‑demand service is expanding.

- Next steps: RER is advancing a two‑year accelerated plan to migrate remaining Durham environmental permit types (drainage, pollution remediation, wetlands and similar “class” permits) into Gold Key for public transparency and electronic tracking. The department also said it will expand programmatic and AI‑assisted reviews where appropriate, continue credentialing and cross‑training efforts to reduce single‑point staffing risks, and deploy body‑worn cameras for field inspection staff as part of transparency and quality‑control efforts.

Commissioners responded favorably but urged urgency. Chairman Bermudez and other members said full migration of Durham permit types to Gold Key will reduce calls to commissioners and minimize perception problems that arise when customers cannot view permit status online.

Quote (selected):

Lourdes (presenting for RER): “The plan that we have gives managers at a glance what the activity is, what the volumes are within the department… We want to make sure that all areas of our department are able to avail themselves of Gold Key.”

What the committee asked for: Commissioners requested a copy of RER’s plan‑review checklist, ongoing metrics on review times across each departmental handoff, and a timeline for Gold Key migration for the remaining Durham permit types. RER said it will continue to return to the committee with updates as implementation proceeds.