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DBI outlines electronic plan‑review rollout hurdles and a curbside remedy to address backlog
Summary
DBI staff told commissioners the rapid shift to Bluebeam for electronic plan review amid the COVID‑19 shutdown produced a large backlog (about 4,000 submissions between April 1 and June 14, ~500 open Bluebeam sessions) and multiple bottlenecks. DBI proposed staff reassignments, overtime, a curbside appointment pilot and technical integration work to speed processing.
DBI staff told the Building Inspection Commission on June 17 that the accelerated transition to an electronic plan‑review platform (Bluebeam) during the COVID‑19 emergency has produced a sizable backlog and multiple operational bottlenecks.
Melissa Whitehouse, Permit Center Director, said the city began accepting electronic submissions April 1 but had never completed an end‑to‑end electronic permit through the new workflow prior to the COVID‑driven acceleration. Between April 1 and June 14 DBI logged roughly 4,000 submissions (including duplicates), established approximately 500 open review sessions in Bluebeam and had issued about 60 fully electronic permits while continuing to process tens of thousands of other permit types.
Whitehouse identified two principal bottlenecks: (1) front‑end intake and manual entry into the permit tracking system (PTS), which creates a lag between online submission and a visible PTS project number; and (2) back‑end case‑management limits and manual administrative steps that make sessions slow to close and permits slow to issue. She said Bluebeam provides collaborative plan review, but it is not a full case management system and DBI’s PTS is older and not yet fully integrated with Bluebeam.
Christine Gasparek (Assistant Director) outlined four strategies to reduce the backlog: temporarily upgrading Permit Tech staff to handle higher‑level processing, hiring and reassigning personnel, offering overtime to permit staff, and launching a curbside appointment system to replicate the pre‑COVID over‑the‑counter experience for both no‑plans and plans projects. The curbside pilot was scheduled to soft‑launch mid‑week with a wider rollout on June 29, prioritizing those who had waited longest.
Interim Director Patrick and staff said they are also pursuing permit‑tracking integration with the city website (to automate the creation of PTS records), and evaluating options to speed resubmissions and reduce administrative handoffs. Commissioners and many public commenters — homeowners, contractors and architects — asked for better transparency (fast permit numbers), clearer customer communications, Mac compatibility for Bluebeam users, clearer homeowner permit paths and faster handling of near‑complete projects such as addenda for final occupancy.
DBI pledged additional staff adjustments and process fixes and said it aims to make a substantial dent in the backlog before moving to the new 49 South Van Ness building at the end of July. Staff emphasized the situation remains challenging amid remote work and high submission volumes, but outlined near‑term operational steps to improve throughput.
