Apps aim to streamline permit process
San Ramon tech firm says software helps projects break ground sooner
As communities throughout the Bay Area struggle to house their booming populations, a local company is debuting new software it says may help cities build homes faster.
San Ramon-based Accela on Tuesday launched two new cloud-based applications to streamline and speed up the permitting process, which in many cities often gets bogged down with delays. That can help developers break ground sooner on the housing units the Bay Area so desperately needs, said Accela’s executive chairman, Mark Jung.
“You can do what you need to do faster,” Jung said, “which means you can process more … applications more quickly in a shorter amount of time.”
Developers often complain about the hoops they have to jump through to
get the city permits necessary to start construction on new residential developments — a lengthy and bureaucratic process that’s about as enjoyable as a trip to the DMV. A recent report by UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation blamed lengthy and complex city permitting processes as a prime contributor to rising construction costs in San Francisco.
“There was only one factor on which all interviewees and focus group participants agreed: The most significant and pointless factor driving up construction costs was the length of time it takes for a project to get through the city permitting and development processes,” the researchers wrote.
Developers surveyed reported that building codes or plans change in the middle of the process, additional hoops seem to pop up at random, projects are subject to a shifting interpretation of existing building codes, and there is a lack of communication between the involved city agencies.
“Standards aren’t clear,” one anonymous participant complained. “There’s an arbitrariness to what happens. You think you’re on the finish line and then you find out there’s one more permit.”
Accela hopes to help change that with its Civic Application for Planning and its Civic Application for Building. Both bring the permit application and approval process online, allowing the developer and city officials to track a building’s status in real time.
Developers and city staff are able to communicate online, instead of playing phone tag, Accela says, and developers are notified instantly if they need to revise their application or provide more information — all of which help reduce delays. The transparent process also helps city officials maintain a big-picture view of their pipeline, see which projects are about to become overdue, and prioritize their workload accordingly.
The result is a faster turnaround, Jung said.
“I’ve seen a permit process go from multiple months to two weeks,” he said in an interview.
Accela has previously rolled out cloud-based software applications cities can use to regulate cannabis sales and to register short-term rental properties.
Several cities, including Oakland and Palo Alto, already have worked with Accela to develop customized online platforms for approving permits.
Palo Alto has been using Accela for several years, but when Peter Pirnejad arrived as the city’s development services director in 2012, the city wasn’t taking full advantage of the platform’s features, he said. Pirnejad changed that, and he said the shift led to noticeable improvements. When he arrived, just 60 percent of permit applications the city received were processed on time, he said. That grew to 95 percent by the time he left earlier this year.
“It definitely makes a difference,” said Pirnejad, who now works as Napa’s assistant city manager. “A lot of time is wasted on the permitting process.”