But right now, the city’s plan review process is much too slow, said Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein.
“We’re much longer than a month right now, and that’s a problem,” she said. “We recognize that, so we’re spending this money to augment staff.”
Dayton City Commission has approved a three-year, $960,000 contract with SAFEBuilt for building, electrical, fire, mechanical and plumbing plan review and zoning activities.
The city expects the contractor to provide as many as 95 hours of plan review services each week next year.
The city’s department of planning, neighborhoods and development’s goal is to issue 6,500 permits and complete 7,200 inspections in 2023.
This contract will help the city at a time when there is a national shortage of plan examiners, Dickstein said.
Simpler projects can get approved or denied within about 10 days, but more complex projects with more components require a longer review, said Steve Gondol, Dayton’s deputy director of planning, neighborhoods and development.
“All submissions to the city are being entered into our review routing process within 30 days,” he said. “Some aspect of the submission is being reviewed during this period, but for complex submissions, the review will exceed 30 days, which is allowed.”
During and coming out of the COVID crisis, there has been elevated numbers of building permit applications and high demand for inspections, Gondol said.
City officials say this is a good sign about the health of the city and the outlook for its continued revitalization.
The SAFEBuilt contract will help the city meet the increased demand for plan submissions while also ensuring it maintains an important certification with the Ohio board of building standards, he said.
Succession planning is going to be a major focus because about half of the city’s building services and housing and inspections staff are expected retire by 2025, Gondol said.
Key positions that will need to be filled in the near future include the chief planning examiner and chief building inspector, he said.
“The SAFEBuilt component will help us be somewhat of a safety net as we try to recruit these positions for new candidates,” Gondol said.
The city also hopes to improve the permit process by pursuing electronic document review.
Currently, permits cannot be applied for online.
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