City of Tallahassee Development Review Fast Tracking and Customer Service Initiative
Types of Improvements Recommended by Committee
- Process Improvements
- Code Improvements/ Ordinance Changes
- Information Improvements
- Organizational Improvements
Process Improvements
- Conflict Resolution. If conflicts exist between the conditions recommended by two or more departments after a site plan meeting and a subsequent one on one meeting between staff from the affected departments, the issue will be immediately flagged by staff and elevated to the director/division head level for resolution.
Benefit to Customer: 2 week time savings when this situation exists.
- Participation By Electric Utilities. Incorporate electric utilities into the development review process.
Benefit to Customer: Better coordination during design results in less back and forth between staff and the applicant at the time of building permitting. Better customer service. Estimated time savings 2 days when this situation exists. - Schedule for Rezonings. Place rezonings on the next available agenda.
Benefit to Customer: Reduces review time by 4-5 weeks. - Concurrency Application Improvement. Separate stormwater concurrency submittals from traffic concurrency submittals. Allow stormwater concurrency requirements to be reviewed with the site plan application.
Benefit to Customer: Eliminates duplication by eliminating the stormwater concurrency application (and saves the applicant the time associated with preparing this submittal) and allows staff to review stormwater concurrency with the site plan application. - Improve Staff/Applicant Communication on Resubmittals. Require in-person appointments with resubmittals for site plans and/or environmental management permits.
Benefit to Customer: Estimated 10% reduction in processing time. - Timing of Letter of Agreement. Require completion of the Letter of Agreement to be done immediately after site plan.
Benefit to Customer: Estimated 30-60 day reduction in review time. - Simultaneous Site Plan/Rezoning Review. Allow simultaneous site plan/rezoning review at the applicant's risk.
Benefit to Customer: Estimated 90 day reduction in review time. - Multi-Departmental Performance Standards. Develop the following measurable performance standards for new projects and resubmittals for all departments participating in the development review process.
- New Minor Environmental Management Permits: 7 days
- New Standard Environmental Management Permits: 15 days
- Environmental Permit Resubmittals: 7 days
- New Type A Site Plans: 7 days
- New Type B Site Plans: 20 days
- Type A and Type B Resubmittals: 7 days
Benefit to Customer: 7 to 14 day reduction in process time. - Conceptual Approval. Develop a conceptual approval for property owners that can be taken to lending institutions to increase the likelihood of obtaining financing.
Benefit to Customer: Better customer service. - Redevelopment/Retrofitting Thresholds. Develop thresholds that define when retrofitting a site to meet zoning requirements is required.
Benefit to Customer: More efficient reviews, clear direction for staff. - Transportation Concurrency. Allow Growth Management staff to run the traffic concurrency analyses rather than requiring that the applicant hire a consultant.
Benefit to Customer: Minimum of a 2-week reduction and a reduction in cost to the applicant. - Unified Application. Develop a unified site plan/environmental management permit application.
Benefit to Customer: Estimated reduction in permitting time of 30 days. - Fees. Revise fee resolution to separate land use application review fees from environmental inspection fees.
Benefit to Customer: Reduction in fees required at the time of submittal.
Code Improvements/Ordinance Changes
- Staff Design Review. Allow basic Urban Design Committee (UDC) reviews (such as fences) to take place at the staff level.
Benefit to Customer: Estimated permitting time savings of 30 days.
- Natural Features Inventory (NFI) Reviews. Allow more flexibility in determining whether a full NFI review should be required for developed parcels.
Benefit to Customer: Estimated permitting time savings of 2 weeks.
- Site Plan Review Thresholds. Modify site plan review thresholds to allow more projects to qualify for Type A site plan review. Require Type B review for all projects with deviation requests.
Benefit to Customer: Estimated permitting time reduction of 23 days.
- Overhaul of Land Development Regulations. Rewrite codes to achieve a better balance between clarity and discretion.
Benefit to Customer: Minimizes rigid standards that may not be suitable for all projects and provides better criteria for decision-making.
Information Improvements
- Top 10 List. Create and post on Talgov.com a top 10 list of ways to avoid delays in the development review process.
Benefit to Customer: Information to assist the applicant in preparing higher quality submittals. Estimated time savings of 1 week.
- Post-Permitting Customer Survey. Implement customer satisfaction survey upon completion of the development review process.
Benefit to Customer: Gives the customer the opportunity to voice their opinions and allows staff to get feedback that can be used to improve the permitting process.
- Customer Service Commitment. Advertise a "customer service commitment" that includes response times and outlines the City's specific commitments to good customer service.
Benefit to Customer: Provides information about what the customer can expect in the permitting process.
- Downloadable Templates. Create a downloadable template for submittal information.
Benefit to Customer: Saves the applicant time associated with creating a template. Makes staff's job easier by providing a consistent format that can lead to an estimated 2 week reduction in permitting review time.
- Workshops. Hold bi-annual workshops with recent applicants to get input on the review process and codes. Develop an action plan based upon the feedback received at the workshops.
Benefit to Customer: Provides opportunity for input.
- Process Improvement Working Group. Create a small (5-7 people) process improvement working group with staff, developers, and citizens. The group should be tasked with producing a report on ways to improve development review, including any structural/organizational changes that would improve the system.
Benefit to Customer: Provides opportunity for input and potential code/process improvements.
Organizational Improvements
- Customer Advocacy. Redefine the role of staff in the site plan review process from regulators to facilitators.
Benefit to Customer: Improves Customer Service.