Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan announced Aug. 28 the city is developing a new building permit review process that will result in a “dramatic reduction in the time it takes to get a permit in the city.”
The lengthy time frames for permitting reviews have been a long-standing issue with developers and builders in the city.
“As we all know, time is money and faster, more efficient permitting processes mean more money in the pockets of everyone,” Deegan said.
Deegan announced the process, called Express Lane Permitting, at a news conference in the Atlantic North shopping center in East Arlington.
Officials said the goal is for Express Lane projects to be completed in less than 30 days. Projects vary by the size and complexity, but can now sometimes take months.
Express Lane Permitting is anticipated to start as the official process by the end of the year.
The city will have an additional charge for Express Lane Permitting, but the amount has not been decided. Nina Sickler, director of Public Works said the fees may be similar to a Texas program that charges $200 per hour per reviewer.
The first pilot project for the new process took 15 days for civil review and 18 days for the building permit process. It was for a McDonald’s near Beach and Kernan boulevards, according to Alan Mosley, a civil engineer and ombudsman for the city Public Works Department.
The second pilot project will be an unidentified grocery store at the site of the news conference between Academy Sports + Outdoors and LA Fitness. That space is now grassed land, so the supermarket would be built between those retailers.
The civil plan review for the grocery submitted by Dominion Engineering of Jacksonville is complete, taking 19 days.
Toney Sleiman, the developer who owns Atlantic North, said he could not reveal the name of the grocer, but it will be the first in the state. Sleiman praised Deegan for implementing the Express Lane process, which he had requested from prior administrations without result.
Site plans submitted to the city show a 61,294-square-foot building with an adjacent 3,200-square-foot space previously identified as a liquor store.
Express Lane civil review works by the applicant submitting documents and then setting a meeting with the team of city reviewers at one time to receive and reply to comments.
Sickler said that “over the past year, the city has made significant strides in improving our permitting process to better serve residents, businesses and our development community.”
She said initially permitting was brought in the Public Works Department to make a more efficient use of resources, eliminate waste and streamline processes. Additionally, the city held industry forums to gain feedback and educate. Consultants also have been used to aid staff with reviews.
“We’ll move forward with one or two more pilots and then we’ll start preparing the legislation required to make this process official,” Sickler said.
The next step “will pilot the use of artificial intelligence to further streamline the permitting process,” by eliminating repetitive work and maintain consistency, Sickler said.
The city plans to team with Swiftbuild.ai and its SwiftGov platform to use artificial intelligence to speed the compliance process.
“AI will deliver faster, more accurate and clear reviews,” along with less red tape, lower cost, more transparency and smarter development,” said Sabrina Dugan, managing partner and co-founder of Swiftbuild.ai.