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Automated Permitting With Smart Permits |
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Arthur E. Henriques
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A number of Silicon Valley leaders from both the public and the private sectors recognized the importance of an information infrastructure to Northern California’s future economic vitality and quality of life in the early 1990s. This lead to development of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network (JVSV). JVSV began a private and public collaborative effort in the San Francisco Bay Area to work on a variety of community initiatives which included the Smart Permits project. The project will ultimately provide businesses and citizens in general with on-line information about how to file government permits, allow them to file and track permits electronically and enable governments to review and process applications on-line. This should help to make the local permitting process more efficient and user-friendly.
Smart Valley was formed in 1993 as an affiliate of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network (JVSV). Smart Valley’s vision for the Community and Government area includes providing all citizens better communication with their government, a more efficient government and more access to helpful information about community events. Smart Valley began a Smart Permitting Project in 1995 to improve the filing and review process for government permits. The project will ultimately provide businesses and citizens in general with on-line information about how to file government permits, allow them to file permits electronically and enable governments to review and process applications on-line. The City of Santa Clara has been participating in the general Joint Venture Smart Permits project since 1995 and has been more specifically active as a pilot City within the past year.
Two tracks were requested by Joint Venture to facilitate the Smart Permit process: one track would look at developing Internet friendly permit software on a pilot basis in-house with local City staff, the second track would work with the private sector permit software vendors to encourage their efforts to include Internet and web features in their programs. A set of software standards for Smart Permitting was developed for both tracks. Local government staff and representatives from industry and private permit software companies reviewed the standards in the Spring of 1996. The Silicon Valley portion of the region then adopted and published the System Requirements for Smart Permits and invited permit software vendors to respond to a regional Request for Proposals (RFP). Eight permit software vendors responded at a level where they could be evaluated by the Smart Permit Technical Committee regarding their ability to write building and related permit software that could meet the Smart Permits standards. These vendors were: Advantage Software Alternatives, CRW and Associates, Eden Systems Inc., Hansen Information Technologies, Kiva Systems Inc., OpenData Systems Inc., Sierra Computer Systems Inc and Tidemark Computer Systems. No vendor met all of the Smart Permit Standards at that time but several companies appeared to be headed in the right direction. An evaluation matrix reviewing each of the responses and then a final report ranking the responses were published on the Joint Venture web site in September of 1996.
In the Fall of 1996, the cities of San Carlos and Sunnyvale were also selected by Joint Venture to be the first two Smart Permit pilot cities to begin testing some of the concepts. The City of Sunnyvale soon after elected to develop an approach to Smart Permits software in-house. The City of San Carlos was selected to lead the technical effort with local agencies that wished to work with one or more of the private vendors to develop software that could meet the Smart Permits standards.
Smart Permits leadership was transferred from Smart Valley to Joint Venture in January of 1997 as the project moved from prototyping and into regional implementation. The City of Santa Clara, San Carlos and several other local agencies participated in field surveys to evaluate the two top ranked private permit software vendors, Tidemark and Hansen, regarding their existing Permit software. Santa Clara then hosted a demonstration for two days on the Permit Software systems by Tidemark and Hansen in February 1997 for local government agencies. Representatives from a number of local agencies then agreed to work together to develop a cooperative purchase of the latest version of the Permit Software from one or more of the top permit vendors. They also agreed to secure a commitment when the vendor(s) would have Smart Permit features available. This group became the Bay Area Smart Permits (BASP) Consortium with San Carlos as the Lead Agency.
One further round of permit software demonstrations was held at local City Halls in March, 1997. The BASP Consortium developed a Technical Committee to send out a Request for Quotes (RFQ) for Permit Software in April, 1997 to the permit vendors whose products had been evaluated the previous summer. The Tidemark, Hansen, Open Data, CRW, and Sierra Permit Software vendors responded. Four of these vendor responses were detailed enough to be ranked by BASP as to completeness of response to the specific RFQ. BASP then worked with Tidemark Permit Systems, the top ranked vendor, to develop a Master Contract and timetable for implementation of the software design that would attempt to meet the Smart Permits standards including the Internet and web features. BASP spent approximately one year working with Tidemark to develop a standard interface to the various permit modules that all the agencies could use. Individual agencies in BASP also began entering into contracts with Tidemark to implement their specific Agency needs beyond the general standards created by the broader group and the requested Smart Permit standards. During this time, Joint Venture also selected Milpitas, Mountain View and Santa Clara to be additional Smart Permit pilot cities.
San Carlos installed the updated Tidemark software in late 1998. Other BASP agencies that are electing to install this software should have these systems operating sometime during 1999. The Internet component of the software should be complete in the Spring of 1999. Several of the original BASP agencies have elected to not pursue the implementation of a new permit system with Tidemark at this time.
The City of Palo Alto was recently added by Joint Venture as the sixth Smart Permits pilot City. Two other pilot cities are expected to be added in 1999 with a Joint Venture goal of ten pilot cities by the Year 2000. Joint Venture, through the the Smart Permits Initiative, continues to focus on encouraging the growth of Sunnyvale’s in-house Smart Permits efforts and the efforts of BASP and other local agencies to work with the private sector vendors to develop permit software that fully meets the Smart Permits standards. The Steering Committee for Smart Permits is also looking at ways to update the standards posted on the Joint Venture web site as they are now over two years old. In addition to promoting Internet access and Web enabled permit tracking software, the region’s Smart Permit efforts look to further integration of electronic permitting with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in a Web-enabled environment, expanded Desktop tools to facilitate redline, conference and review of drawings and reports electronically and the further development of uniform systems and standards to facilitate staff and customer understanding and use of streamlined permitting systems.
More information about the Joint Venture Smart Permits Initiative, the pilot cities and lessons learned to date can be found on the Joint Venture web site at:
http://www.jointventure.org/initiatives/smart permits/index.html
More information on the Bay Area Smart Permits Consortium can be found by contacting the BASP Chairperson Connie Dillard, City of San Carlos Technology Manager via e-mail at: connie.dillard@ci.san-carlos.ca.us or BASP Co-Chair Arthur E. Henriques, City of Santa Clara Planning at: ahenriques@ci.santa-clara.ca.us
Arthur E. Henriques
City Planner, City Of Santa Clara