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HomeMy WebLinkAbout16 - Planning and Development Review FunctionCITY OF NEWPORT BEACH CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT Agenda Item No. 16 March 13, 2007 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL FROM: City Manager's Office Sharon Wood, Assistant City Manager 949 - 644 -3222, swood(a) city. newport- beach. ca. us Planning Department David Lepo, Planning Director 949 - 644 -3285, dlepo @city.newport- beach.ca.us SUBJECT: Monthly Progress Report on Planning Department and Development Review Function RECOMMENDATION: Receive and file. DISCUSSION: Planning Department Customer Service Improvements Incremental procedural changes to improve customer service continue to be made in the Planning Department. Staff members, however, are looking forward to the installation and furnishing of a modular office facility and the reconfiguration of the first floor conference room in Building "C ". These are seen as milestones toward reaching the goal of 4 -week plan check turnaround time. Two Senior Planners from Economic Development and two Senior Planners from Advanced Planning will relocate to the modulars, with delivery anticipated in early April. The first floor conference room will be transformed into additional public counter service area for the Planning Department. One 2 "d floor office will replace the converted 15r floor conference room space. These changes will accommodate the addition of three new Plan Check Specialists and one new Assistant Planner included in the reorganization plan previously presented to City Council. Consigned until now solely to offices on the 2nd floor due to spatial limitations on the 1" floor, all Assistant and Associates Planners will provide 8 hours each per week of person -to- person customer service at the public counter once the first floor changes are completed. Staff is working on plans and bids for this work. Monthly Progress Report on Planning Department and Development Review March 13, 2007 Page 2 Development Review Improvements Two staff task forces have been reviewing the ideas generated at an all -staff brainstorming session a few months ago. These groups are dealing with technology and work flow, and their charge is to review the brainstorming ideas, reject those that are not feasible or would not provide improvement in our service delivery, explore promising ideas and either recommend implementation or identify constraints or additional resources that would be needed. The technology task force is standardizing the appearance and function of all the City department websites dealing with development review and permitting, developing a convention for identifying corrections from each department, and is working on having all departments' corrections available online. They are also improving webpage aesthetics to maintain a look that is consistent with the entire City website, and adding development review services to the "Quick Links" section on the City homepage. These changes should be implemented in the next week. This group is also reviewing possible changes to the Permits Plus system, both short- and long -term. The work flow task force has made some minor improvements and is working through a long list of ideas to be considered. They have implemented some ideas, such as sending tenant improvement plans directly to Planning, without waiting for Building to "batch" them (time saving estimated to be one week). They have also reviewed and made some changes to the list of departments that receive each type of permit application for review as another way to shorten review times. We are looking at this more closely for possible work re- assignments and additional time savings. In addition to the task force work, we have made substantial progress on a review of plan submittal requirements for all departments, with the goal of making it clear to our applicants what is required for a complete application. Our goal is that applicants will know what is required, and staff will not start reviewing incomplete applications. This will not only make it easier for our customers to prepare submittals, but also lessen a current problem of customers who are frustrated that their second round of review produces new corrections because new information was submitted, or customers who complain that plans have been in the system for a long period of time, when incomplete plans were submitted initially. Submitted by: Sharon Wood Assistant City Manager - -<— �� David Lepo Planning Director