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Planning, building and assessor offices push digital submissions and faster permit reviews
Summary
Planning and building staff proposed optional digital application submissions with secure online payments, faster completeness reviews (targeting weeks instead of 30 days), and a longer‑term plan to consolidate land records into a GIS system to speed permitting and public access.
Rubia Lee (planning) and Garrett Thompson (building) described coordinated department goals to expand optional digital application submissions, implement a secure online payment portal (the county currently lacks credit‑card acceptance), and reduce processing time for completeness reviews and decisions. Rubia said the planning team has grown and aims to cut review times substantially — an example goal is reducing a 30‑day completeness review to roughly two weeks.
Garrett noted the building office already accepts permit packages digitally but historically required paper plan submittals; the county has adopted Bluebeam for digital plan review and reports a roughly one‑week permit turnaround in baseline conditions. Both presenters emphasized the need for funding to purchase more modern plan‑review tools and client tablets for on‑site inspection against digital plans.
Longer term, staff seek to merge assessment, survey, planning and clerk records into an accessible GIS platform (shovel‑ready property database) that would help permit applicants, title companies, and staff find records more quickly and reduce redundant work.
What’s next: staff will scope online payment integration, pursue grants for consolidation and GIS work, and report back with implementation timelines and resource needs.
Sources: remarks by Rubia Lee and Garrett Thompson at the April 1 workshop.
