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Planning director says ABQ Plan migration is ahead of schedule; inspections continuing during short transition
Summary
Planning Director Alan Barela told council that the POSSE-to-ABQ Plan conversion involves migrating roughly 4 terabytes of data and that inspections have continued during the six-business-day transition.
Alan Barela, director of the Planning Department, briefed council on Jan. 22 about the department’s migration from the legacy POSSE permitting system to a new platform called ABQ Plan.
Barela said the migration involves nearly 4 terabytes of data — an amount he described as equivalent to hundreds of millions of pages of text — and that the conversion has been under preparation for about two years. The city began public communications approximately one year ago, conducted external beta testing with developers, neighborhood associations and contractors in mid-2024 and postponed an earlier launch to the winter to limit disruption to construction activity.
Barela told the council that inspections have continued during the migration, which the department called a six-business-day transition. He said the department conducted 352 inspections across the last two business days (Friday and the most recent Tuesday) and that new requests for final and emergency inspections were prioritized. The director said the conversion has not created an inspection backlog and that the electrical inspection backlog has been reduced from four weeks to two weeks; two new electrical inspectors are expected to join within the next month.
Councilors asked about communication to contractors and whether projects in progress would be delayed; Barela said the department used phone-tree notifications, press releases, social media and direct outreach to stakeholders and that most emergency and final inspections would continue to be processed manually if needed. He also said the department's budget for the conversion included a total appropriation of roughly $1.9 million, with about $1.3 million nonrecurring (as presented to council previously).
Why it matters: Permitting and inspection continuity affects building projects, housing production and business activity. The department’s assurances that inspections are continuing and that staff prioritized finals and emergencies aim to limit economic disruption during the short transition window.
What’s next: The department will continue monitoring the conversion and provide updates on inspection metrics and system availability.
