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Staff demos OpenGov permitting portal, says rollout is speeding reviews and flagging payment scams
Summary
Planning staff demonstrated the new OpenGov permitting and review portal, which county staff say centralizes permitting workflows, automates notices and legal ads, supports inspection scheduling, and exposes a nationwide payment-scam risk; staff said paper or staff-assisted submittals will remain available.
Miss Hopkins, a planning department staff member, demonstrated the county's new OpenGov permitting portal and described features designed to streamline land-development reviews and permit workflows. Hopkins said the system was loaded internally in mid-December and went live to staff and the public in early January; it allows applicants to create one account, submit permits, upload required attachments (flood-elevation certificates, as-built drawings), schedule inspections, and receive automated notices and fee calculations.
Hopkins said OpenGov connects building, zoning, land-disturbance and utility review streams so that required documents and reviews are visible across departments, reducing repeated handoffs. "So this does everything," she said, summarizing the portal's aim to replace multiple in-person steps and duplicate submissions. Staff demonstrated how rezoning and special-use materials generate applicant and adjoining-owner notices automatically and how the system auto-populates legal-ad language for the newspaper after county attorney review.
Commissioners asked about access, privacy and scams. Hopkins said the public can view rezoning and special-use applications because those records are public, but some detailed building-permit attachments are not visible. She confirmed the county will not rely on an applicant photo ID to add contractors; contractors gain access only if added as a guest by the permit holder. Hopkins also warned of a recent nationwide scam in which fraudsters email applicants asking for wire transfers; she said the county will add a notice to applications that all payments must be made through the portal and that staff will not send payment links by email.
Hopkins said staff cannot yet quantify time savings for applicants because the system has been live for only a month, but the portal does enable staff to pull key performance indicators more easily. She told the commission staff can still accept paper or PDF submissions and will assist applicants who are not technology-inclined.
Next steps: staff will continue fine-tuning the system, publish user guidance and notices about scam emails on the portal, and bring procedural updates to the commission as needed.
