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County highlights faster online permitting as Acela rollout continues
Summary
Santa Barbara County officials showed supervisors progress moving permitting online via the Acela platform, saying digital submissions have replaced most paper filings and that new features aim to shorten permit timelines. Supervisors pressed staff for user-experience metrics and faster appeal/notification processes.
Santa Barbara County officials told the Board of Supervisors on July 14 that the county has moved nearly all permit applications into an online portal and is rolling out further Acela features to shorten review and inspection timelines.
The presentation described a multi-year migration from an on-premises permitting system to a cloud-based platform and showed a user-facing portal that lets applicants track steps, receive notifications and submit digital plans. Staff said paper filings dropped from roughly 90% to about 5% and estimated the shift has saved approximately 1,000 staff hours.
Why it matters: County leaders said faster, more transparent permitting should lower costs and delay for residents and contractors and support housing and economic projects. Supervisors pressed for concrete metrics—how long permits sit on desks, how appeals are handled and whether customers find the portal intuitive—before the next major rollout.
Supervisor questions centered on operational metrics and user support. The board requested staff provide turnaround-time dashboards, escalation alerts for applications that exceed target review times and evidence of customer-centered testing. Staff answered that service-level agreements and task-tracking filters exist and that additional reporting and notification tools are being implemented; they also described ongoing staff training to support the change.
Implementation details and next steps: County departments expect to expand online inspection scheduling, digital plan review and credit-card (PCI-compliant) payments; staff projected further modules and a broader hub by 2027. The board voted to receive the report and directed staff to return with specific metrics on application processing times and the proposed notification rules.
"This is a transformational change for service delivery," county staff told supervisors, noting the portal99s ability to show applicants where their request sits in the review cycle. The board asked staff to include user-experience test results and a proposed schedule for incremental public rollouts when the item returns for follow-up.
