County planning and building staff told the commission they are improving how they track building permits and inspections and are converting the 2011 zoning ordinance from PDF to an editable Word document to support transparent edits.

Staff said the packet includes November and December building-permit reports plus a year-end summary. The goal is to categorize permits (commercial, residential, service, solar, etc.) to understand trends, workload and whether staffing changes are warranted. Staff estimated the department handles roughly 1,200 inspections annually and said improvements in the software should make monthly and yearly trends clearer.

Commissioners asked whether small service permits (few inspections) will be aggregated separately from large projects that require many inspections; staff said descriptions in the permit register will note the nature of work and count inspections accordingly. The commission asked staff to include clearer permit counts in future packets and to provide the updated digital ordinance files so the use-table edits can be shown as deletions and insertions.

No staffing changes or budget additions were approved at the meeting; staff said they will return with improved reports and the completed digital conversion for subsequent review.