San Francisco outlines phased Permit SF rollout using OpenGov to centralize permitting and add audit trails

San Francisco officials on Tuesday unveiled Permit SF, a multi-year effort to replace the city's aging permit tracking system with an OpenGov platform designed to centralize intake, give applicants a real-time status tracker, and create click-level audit logs for every permitting action.

Elizabeth Waddy, director of Permit SF, said the project aims to simplify application steps for small businesses and homeowners by providing a single public portal that uses dynamic questions and enterprise address lookups to reduce incomplete or inaccurate submissions. "We want the customer to have a real-time status tracker so they know where they are and what to expect next," Waddy said.

The presentation followed remarks from Patrick O'Rearton, director of the Department of Building Inspection (DBI), who described longstanding pain points: a customer interface more than 20 years old, separate departmental comment processes, no user accounts for applicants, and an Oracle-based back end no longer supported. "The current technology relies on manual processes," O'Rearton said, adding that many permit steps still require in-person transactions at 49 South Van Ness.

In Phase 1 the city will…