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Santa Barbara County pitches faster online permits as Acela rollout expands
Summary
County IT and planning officials told the Board of Supervisors the Acela cloud migration and new ePermitHub plan review tool have reduced paperwork, expanded on-demand permits and will enable an online plan room by March 2027; staff showed metrics, a demonstration and a roadmap for inspection scheduling and future AI tools.
County officials on July 14 told the Board of Supervisors that a multi-year effort to modernize permitting is producing faster customer service, more transparent review and planned enhancements to reduce delays.
"We have gone from 95 to 99% paper submittals now to online, almost a 100%," Chris Chirgwin, the county's chief information officer, told the board during a departmental update on the Acela permitting and licensing platform. He said the county has migrated key departments to the Acela cloud and created a steering committee to coordinate use across Planning and Development, Public Works, Fire, County Health and the CEO's cannabis division.
The presentation from Planning and Development Director Lisa Plowman and her team highlighted the county's on-demand permits (solar via SolarAPP, electrical-panel and water-heater work) and an increasing number of applicants using the online portal; staff reported 524 on-demand approvals in the last fiscal year. Plowman said the system now shows applicants which departments have completed reviews and which still have pending steps, reducing calls and in-person visits.
Staff described a two-part next phase: an ePermitHub digital plan room to manage joint plan reviews and prevent reviewers from working from mismatched plan sets, and integration with Acela's public portal/OpenCounter to improve the applicant user interface. The ePermitHub implementation is under way; staff said planning will be live in March 2027. The county also plans an online inspection scheduler and a streamlined ADU application.
"This has been a real transformation to the fire prevention division in the way we do business," Fire Chief Hough told the board. He said online submissions and automated tracking allow inspectors to focus on fieldwork instead of logistics.
Board members pushed staff to provide measurable performance targets. "I'd love to hear how review times have improved both for the applicant and for your staff," Supervisor Capes said; staff responded that service-level agreements are in place and better reporting is a near-term priority. Chirgwin said the shared cloud environment makes consolidated reporting possible and that the county has started integrating GIS to produce spatial reports.
Staff also told supervisors they are exploring AI tools that could surface issues earlier in the review process, while cautioning that technology costs and vendor maturity must be managed.
What happens next: the board accepted the update and directed staff to return with priorities and additional reporting recommendations; implementation milestones include ePermitHub for planning (March 2027), expanded on-demand permit types and pilot inspector scheduling.
Sources: county staff presentations and board discussion; direct quotes from Chris Chirgwin and Lisa Plowman.
