Bakersfield officials unveil new permitting tools, guaranteed site-plan timeframes and a proposed one-stop 'development concierge'

City staff on Aug. 28 told the Bakersfield City Council they are rolling out a new online permitting system, setting guaranteed timeframes for site-plan review and planning a centralized "development concierge" intended to make the city's development-review process more predictable and timely.

City Manager Clegg and Assistant City Manager Gary Hallen said the improvements are the product of a multi-department review that included two developer surveys (2022 and November 2023), a cross-department "red team" and ongoing work with a stakeholder advisory group of local developers. "This topic today is your number 1 priority," Hallen said, noting the 2023 survey was affected by system downtime and therefore provides a low baseline for improvement.

Development Services Director Phil Burns described a cloud-based applicant interface that integrates with the city's plan-review system to consolidate records, show applicants a dashboard of their permits, provide an online routing slip that documents who reviewed a project and enable electronic corrections and inspection records. Burns said the site-plan-review committee has agreed to a 15-working-day target to complete comments; staff aims to bring typical site-plan reviews closer to 30-35 calendar days after other steps are included. "That was so that our overall process, we could get it done 30, 35 days," Burns said.

Staff said migration to the new permitting system is nearly complete. Burns said staff will hold eight training sessions for applicants (virtual and in-person) and notified about 70 developers of the training schedule. City management described the business success team as a high-level, cross-department forum and the development concierge as a "white glove" service that would provide named points of contact for major projects and help bring issues to department heads. Clegg clarified the team would act as "facilitators and advocates" rather than having final technical sign-off authority: "They are really an ombudsman and a facilitator more than having formal authority to make those decision calls." (City Manager Clegg).

Developers who testified at the meeting welcomed the changes. Jeff Etrium of Bolthouse Properties said staff engagement has improved and stressed the value of predictability: "What sells Bakersfield ... is the time frames and the certainties," he said. Several builders and trade groups praised the proposed one-stop shop and urged attention to both front-end review timelines and back-end occupancy processes.

Council members responded with a mix of support and requests for accountability. Several members praised the timeline guarantees and urged that each project be reviewed regularly with named responsibilities to prevent delays. Councilmember Freeman pressed for two-week review cycles and named accountability at each step; Councilmember Smith suggested broader use of partial occupancies where public safety is not at risk.

Next steps staff outlined include continued refinement of guaranteed timeframes across permit types, additional staff training, public-facing brochures and checklists, and return to council with any resource requests or items that require formal ratification. The council voted to receive and file the presentation.

The council approved the administrative action to receive and file the staff update; the meeting adjourned at 4:50 p.m.