The city of Spokane is making strides in reducing the time it takes to process building and land-use permit applications for commercial projects, says Jan Quintrall, the city's new director of business and development services.

The improvement largely is due to fundamental, employee-driven changes that streamline the application and review process, saving applicants time and money, Quintrall says.

The city's ultimate goal is to process most commercial applications within 30 days of submittal, and Quintrall says the city has taken significant steps in that direction.

The recently approved building permit for the $12.5 million Jefferson Elementary School replacement project planned on the South Hill is an example of the progress resulting from the streamlining, she says. The permit process took 49 business days from application to approval, and for nearly half of that time, the project was under revision by the applicant, Quintrall says.

"It was only in the city's hands for 25 business days," she says. "That's light speed for a project that big."

The project is out to bid this month, and work is scheduled to start in June.

Spokane Mayor David Condon appointed Quintrall in late February to the position in which she oversees the city's building, planning, economic development, and engineering departments. Quintrall, who formerly was the president and CEO of the Spokane-based Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Washington, North Idaho and Montana, says the commercial permit streamlining effort was well under way when she came onboard.

Kristen Becker, senior engineer with the city, is on the team that's streamlining the permit process. Becker says the improved process starts with encouraging applicants seeking commercial building and land-use permits to schedule a predevelopment conference. The city provides a checklist of information for the applicant to bring to the conference so city staff can provide preliminary guidance that will help avoid potential obstacles that would add time and expense to the application and review process, Becker says.

As early as the predevelopment conference, the project will be assigned to a permit manager who will be the contact for the applicant for most issues. The applicant also will be asked to provide a main contact, Quintrall says.

A single point of contact will eliminate the need for the applicant to contact each department separately and will ensure that the applicant's design team and the city's plan-review team work from the same sets of plans and comments, Quintrall says.

The streamlined process is more responsive to developers, says Walt Huffman, a principal at Spokane architectural firm Madsen Mitchell Evenson & Conrad PLLC, of Spokane, which designed the Jefferson Elementary project.

"From our perspective, it did go through quickly," Huffman says of the Jefferson permit. "The city responded quickly on initial reviews and we were able to respond back and keep it on schedule as much as possible."

In earlier projects, before the city assigned permit managers, it was more difficult to keep tabs on the project status in each department, he says.

"There's still the same number of departments, but a permit manager sets deadlines, which the departments were able to meet," Huffman says.

Becker says a well-defined chain of communication will ensure project consultants and the city staff are on the same page. Previously, with multiple points of contact, various consultants would develop plans that didn't match, she says.

The streamlined process should result in cost savings just by reducing the amount of rework consultants have been doing, she says. It also saves the city from having to track down information by requiring that developers do adequate up-front work on their permit applications, as the city no longer will accept incomplete applications for commercial permits.

Becker says it had become common when the city had a backlog of projects in plan review for developers to submit proposals that weren't complete, because they knew they could continue working on them while they were in the queue.

"Customers just wanted to get in line," Becker says. "Now, they don't have to wait in line, because we look at plans when they come in the door, and the customer basically gets the first comments over the counter."

The requirement that applications be complete at the time of submittal will keep projects from being placed on hold for resubmittal and reduce the amount of time it takes the city to review plans, Quintrall says.

At the time of submittal, applicants also will receive a pledge date on which to expect comments from the review team, which includes representatives from the solid waste, water, fire, building, planning, engineering, traffic, and health departments and agencies.

"The goal is to have comments in seven to 10 days," Quintrall says. "We're not quite there yet."

Under the streamlined system, project consultants won't need to contact each department to determine when comments will be complete. The permit manager will compile all responses into one letter and will resolve conflicting comments before sending the comments to the applicant, she says.

Fees have remained constant as the city implements the streamlined system. Quintrall says she'll review the fee schedule next to ensure that they're in line with costs.