Supervisors Adopt Recommendations to Improve Land Use Permitting Process
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Wednesday to direct the County Land Use and Environment Group to implement 17 recommendations intended to reduce permit processing times and costs.
The Board also directed the group to evaluate another couple of dozen recommendations and report back to the Board in 60 days.
The recommendations were put together by a task force the Board established in April to reduce “red tape” wherever possible in the County’s land use permitting process.
The task force, which was made up of seven members appointed by the Board, met twice a month between April and November.
Some of the recommendations that the Board said should be implemented immediately included:
- Establishing an external “Audit Committee” to review and report to the Board how the Land Use and Environment Group departments are implementing the Service First Initiative, an previous report aimed at improving the permitting process.
- Develop a group-wide “sense of urgency” to speed up the permitting process, and encourage County staff who embrace that philosophy.
- Empower County Project Managers to make planning decisions on projects.
- Establish training and mentoring for group staff members.
- Continue to shift as many types of projects as possible from needing discretionary approval to “ministerial” approval — from needing the permission of the County Board of Supervisors or Planning Commission to simply requiring less formal approval or building permits.
- Eliminate introducing new project requirements late in the permitting process.
- Measure employee performance by how quickly projects move through processing rather than how employees finish individual tasks.
- Establish ongoing customer service training for employees.
- Assign project managers to individual projects early in the permitting process and keep them in charge through completion of the permitting process.
Land use planning, the process of accommodating growth while protecting residents’ quality of life and preserving the natural environment, is a fundamental responsibility of local governments.
Some of the key functions of the County’s land use process include:
- Helping create and maintain the County’s general plan, the document that sets the philosophy and policies that determine how unincorporated communities will grow while protecting the land uses those communities value.
- Maintaining and improving the zoning ordinance that protects livability and public health.
- Reviewing discretionary projects submitted by the public in accordance with state, federal and local laws and providing all the information and advice County Supervisors and the Planning Commission need to judge those projects. (Discretionary projects such as subdivisions and lot splits are those must get County approval to be built.)
Watch this item addressed at the Board of Supervisors meeting