Improvements to permitting, inspection processes moving forward

Mecklenburg County has laid the foundation for a better building process, moving forward with several steps to address concerns from contractors and others about permitting and inspections, county commissioners were told Tuesday night.

Ebenezer Gujjarlapudi, director of the Land Use and Environmental Services Agency, which oversees the county’s code enforcement department, told commissioners that while the department’s workload continues to rise, it is making continuous improvements, particularly in the areas of technology and accountability.

“We are well on the way in our journey,” Gujjarlapudi said during the commission’s meeting at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center. “And we have a way to go.”

Improvement has been a departmental focus following complaints about its performance.

Builders have said the city’s and county’s customer service problems result from a confusing system.

Others, such as homeowners, architects, engineers and developers, have said there has been a lack of collaboration between the city and county, and they are at times unaware of which services the county handles, which services the city handles, and those that are shared.

A report commissioned by the city and county recommended unification of the city’s and county’s building development departments and a focus on changing the work culture at city and county agencies so employees understand roles, responsibilities and issues and provide better customer assistance.

The report also recommended simplifying building development processes.

Further, the report urged planning and managing technology to address gaps, redundancies and inefficiencies regarding software and improving the consistency of code interpretation and application.

With differences in construction needs for apartments, commercial office, mixed use, residential and renovations, staff members are “constantly adapting and evolving” to adapt to the changing nature of those businesses, Gujjarlapudi told commissioners.

In response to an industry request, officials last fall created an inspection team focused on multifamily commercial projects “so that they have a dedicated team of inspectors that know the project, that are there from beginning to end, have relationships with the contractors so that the process can move forward much faster,” Gujjarlapudi said.

Thirty new staff members will be added, replacing some who retired, and he sees that “as our biggest opportunity yet to train them in what is the expected culture for Mecklenburg County code inspectors going forward,” Gujjarlapudi said.

“There are going to be hiccups in the process,” he said.

The city and county also are working together on technology upgrades, Gujjarlapudi said.

Gartner Inc., a global information technology research firm, suggested the city and county consolidate various online service websites into a single portal, as opposed to having multiple portals.

The consultant also suggested the city and county either consolidate or integrate software and applications that offer the same services to cut out overlapping and redundant functions.

Gujjarlapudi said county officials last year estimated the timeline for improvements would be about three years, with some initiatives to take longer.

Time, however, is not a luxury the county has.

As the county has grown, so has the code enforcement workload.

Gujjarlapudi told commissioners the workload included issuing 94,913 residential, commercial and other permits in fiscal year 2015. That was a 7 percent increase over FY 2014 and a 26 percent jump from FY 2012.

The workload also included 265,429 inspections in FY 2015, Gujjarlapudi said. That was a 9.5 percent increase over FY 2014 and a 46.5 percent rise over FY 2012.

LUESA handles building inspections, plan reviews and permitting processes to ensure projects abide by the state building code.

The land development division within the city’s Engineering and Property Management Department handles inspections and plan reviews to ensure they are compliant with city development standards.

Since February 2014, the county has undertaken several steps to address concerns about the building permitting and inspection process.

The steps include the county and city jointly contracting with consultants to obtain the “Voice of the Customer” and to conduct an independent review of processes and procedures.

Surveys and focus groups were used to gauge customer satisfaction from the building community, including general contractors, architects, engineers and trade professionals.

About 1,500 city and county customers were reached and findings were incorporated in an assessment by Gartner.

In its report, Gartner broke down its recommendations into seven “themes” that city and county officials should address, and the consultant provided proposals targeted at each.

City and county staff members are working collaboratively on four of the priorities, including establishing a unified development services system and supporting subcommittees.

As part of its contract, Gartner will help develop future services delivery models and establish a long-term permitting and a plan-review application strategy.

Commissioners said they were pleased with the agency’s progress and some said the improvements have blunted much of the building industry’s criticism.

County Commission Chairman Trevor Fuller thanked Gujjarlapudi and commended County Manager Dena Diorio for the agency’s code enforcement efforts, saying commissioners had heard “serious concerns” from developers and others.

“The diligence that you have brought to this process, I believe, has allowed a lot of that boiling to calm down,” Fuller told Gujjarlapudi. “Clearly, there are still issues. Clearly. And we still need to work through those issues.”