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Development review times

michaelskis

michaelskis

Cyburbian
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How long does your community take to review development plans and do you have a set schedule? Most of the places that I have worked at have been very systematic with timelines and surprisingly I am getting a bit of pushback on doing the same thing here. So I figured I would reach out and see if I am being unreasonable here.

Also does your process have different cycles for Final Site Plan vs Construction Drawing or is it done at the same time?
 
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michaelskis said:
How long does your community take to review development plans and do you have a set schedule? Most of the places that I have worked at have been very systematic with timelines and surprisingly I am getting a bit of pushback on doing the same thing here. So I figured I would reach out and see if I am being unreasonable here.

Also does your process have different cycles for Final Site Plan vs Construction Drawing or is it done at the same time?
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First, do you need answers for zoning entitlement public hearing process(es) timeline as separate from the by-right permit review timeline?

Second, are you seeking advice on timelines from formal application to approval/permit issuance?

As you know, there are unique problems and snags throughout each and may have separate and distinct solutions/descriptions.
 
We do have certain timelines established by the state (Permit Streamlining Act, along with a myraid of housing bills that also set their own timelines) that we have to follow.

When we built our current Tyler permitting system, we were very deliberate in baking in all of these review timelines into each step, and then cutting those mandatory timelines in in half or more. Each step of the review is also tracked and will give alerts when it's upcoming, due, or past due. I will monitor the status of permits or entitlements that are hitting those windows, and also use this information as part of our department's KPIs. We also use it, along with built in automated emails to applicants and property owners that we had programmed, so that they know that their "X month-long project" was on our desk only for 15 days but has been with their designer/contractor/etc for the rest of the time.

I will add that small cell wireless facilities are the only one that runs outside of our system since their timelines were too wacky to program.
 
5-10 days for plan review, not including BPs. Most are 10 for the first revie and the subsequent is 5 days. One zone is 5 days starting from the first review. State code I believe is 15 or 20 days.
 
When an application for a zoning permit is complete, we have 15 business days to issue the permit. Typically, it is out the door in under two days.
 
mendelman said:
First, do you need answers for zoning entitlement public hearing process(es) timeline as separate from the by-right permit review timeline?

Second, are you seeking advice on timelines from formal application to approval/permit issuance?

As you know, there are unique problems and snags throughout each and may have separate and distinct solutions/descriptions.
Click to expand...

That is part of the issue here. We have a nearly construction drawing level expectation for things that need zoning entitlement (public hearings) for the PC and CC. When we finish the Comp Plan, we will do a UDO or UDC and clean up that issue.

The majority of what I am asking about is the full on site plan, or subdivision plan level stuff.
 
We're running 30-45 days on the 1st review. Most of the is due to the workload.

I know there is a state required shot clock, but I always forget what it is. We just get a flag on the project when it's getting close.
 
We have shot clocks tied to Board approvals (HPC, PC, BZA). We have a 30 day clock on signs or they are denied so we try to make sure they are done before that time. Otherwise we try to just do them as soon as possible. We average 5 days on individual residential reviews. Sometimes it quicker, but we're getting more and more submittals 10-20 homes at a time.

We're failing on reviewing commercial and multi-family final plans. We've been lax in the past and it worked, but now workload and complexity have really created problems. We try to complete all plan reviews within 3-4 weeks. We always try to work with people to keep them on schedule if possible. We don't often get consistent submissions and need to rewrite our codes to help this. I also have some planners that suffer from decision paralysis. That's a work in progress.
 
michaelskis said:
That is part of the issue here. We have a nearly construction drawing level expectation for things that need zoning entitlement (public hearings) for the PC and CC. When we finish the Comp Plan, we will do a UDO or UDC and clean up that issue.

The majority of what I am asking about is the full on site plan, or subdivision plan level stuff.
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Like post entitlement or entitlement? As pointed out, entitlement is super specific in my state. Post entitlement, for housing, also coming in hot for minimum turn around times.
 
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