HomeMy WebLinkAboutInformation Update.201906241
AGENDA
INFORMATION UPDATE
June 24, 2019
4:00 PM,
I.INFORMATION UPDATE
I.A.Permit Process Update
I.B.2019 Citizen Survey
I.C.Community Safety during July 4th and New Year’s Eve
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INFORMATION MEMORANDUM
TO:City of Aspen Mayor and Council
FROM:Jessica Garrow, Community Development Director
Mike Metheny, Chief Building Official
Trish Aragon, City Engineer
MEETING DATE:June 24, 2019
RE: Information Only: Permit Process Updates and Improvements
Background: Aspen is a special place, with complex regulations adopted by City Council to
help protect our authentic small town character, while also pushing the built environment to
be the most efficient and sustainable possible. At its most basic, Aspen’s permitting system
requires development to occur in a way that ensures the City of Aspen remains an authentic,
vibrant, safe, and livable community. This is achieved through the preservation of our unique
history; a focus on environmental sustainability; and protecting public health, safety and
general welfare as it relates to the construction and occupancy of buildings and structures.
Development in Aspen is complex, innovative and continually adapting. As a result, our
permitting system is not a one size fits all –it is a system that adapts depending on the project,
and is continually improving to meet the demands of our community. Since 2014, the City of
Aspen has initiated positive changes to address complaints we’ve heard from customers about
the length, intricacy, and cost of obtaining a permit. The improvements are ongoing and
additional upgrades are forthcoming. This memo provides a high-level overview of the City of
Aspen permitting process, including innovations and improvement measures both implemented
and planned.
Summary: The building permitting process consists of three core activities —permit intake,
permit review, and permit issuance. Throughout each step, staff works with applicants and
their teams to ensure projects are working through the process. Even prior to permit intake,
review groups encourage applicants to meet with them during the conceptual design of a
project to help identify any potential code-related issues.
1.Permit Intake: In this beginning step, an applicant submits their project to the City for
review and approval. Applicants are responsible for submitting complete and code-
compliant permit applications. Three (3) Permit Coordinators (PCs) work with applicants
to ensure their submissions are complete, and address the requirements of the various
review agencies. They also act as a main point of contact for all applicants as their
project works its way through the permitting system. In 2016, this process moved to an
electronic portal, and paper permit submissions were phased out in an effort to reduce
the city’s environmental impact, and to improve the processing of permits through the
review process.
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2. Permit Review: During this phase, the various review agencies evaluate a permit against
all applicable codes, and any previously approvals that may be relevant. Depending on
the scope of the projects, up to thirteen (13) different agencies may review an
application. During this phase, the PCs will provide status updates to applicants, and
reviewers will work directly with the applicant team to ensure specific regulations are
met and seek clarifications when needed. If the application complies with all codes, the
reviewer will approve the permit for their respective agency. If not, the reviewer
provides a detailed comment letter with all issues that need to be addressed. This will
trigger a second review round. The comment issuance and applicant response process
will continue until the application complies with all applicable codes/regulations for all
review agencies.
3. Permit Issuance: Once all applicable review agencies have reviewed and approved a
permit, it goes through a final approval process. This ensures that the correct sheets
are included in the approved and issued set of plans, which will be on-site during
construction. Final fees are paid, and the approved plans and associated documents are
given to the applicant. Once a permit is issued, the applicant has 180 days to begin
construction, or request an extension if more time is needed. From there, the
contractors in the field build to plans, and the City’s Construction Management and
Inspection teams ensure that construction follows the approved plans.
Discussion: Below is a summary of upgrades to the permitting process the City has initiated,
which were based on customer feedback and targeted engagement with the community. To
date, emphasis has been placed on the development review process, which has been successful
in tackling the issues our customers cared about most: cost, timeliness, and simplicity.
Electronic Plans Review: In 2016, the City began transitioning to electronic review and
management of permits. This work included extensive scanning of permit and address files
(which continues), so they are part of a searchable database available to staff and the
community, as well as the use of an electronic permit review program called Bluebeam.
Bluebeam enables staff from multiple departments to review a single permit simultaneously,
rather than sequentially. This single change has transformed the City’s ability to more quickly
review permits.
Electronic Permits Management System: Also in 2016, the City entered into a contract to
create a new electronic permits management system using a platform from a company called
Salesforce. To date, smaller permits, including Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP)
permits, tent permits, fence permits, and sign permits are fully functional in the system. Full
Building Permits are expected to be live in this system later this year. Once the new Salesforce
Platform is completely deployed, staff and applicants will be able to track permit review status
online. The system will also provide more robust permit tracking and data metrics; which will
assist in informing and facilitating future process improvements. Additionally, this system has
sophisticated reporting capabilities that will enable Council, staff, applicants, and the
community to understand the permit queue and review times in more detail.
Improved Review Times: Throughout 2016 and 2017, staff focused on areas to improve the
process. In the fall of 2017, the City convened a series of focus groups to map and track the
city’s review and permitting process. These focus group identified a number of key pain points
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that needed to be addressed – the overall timeliness of permit review, as well as the transition
from planning approval to permitting.
Several process and staffing improvements were made to speed permit reviews, which resulted
in a reduction of review times by a significant margin. By way of example, one year ago the
zoning building permit queue was backed-up with approximately 200 permits requiring review.
Today, the zoning queue backlog averages less than 20 permits requiring review on any given
day, a 90% decrease. Additionally, Zoning has improved coordination with Historic Preservation
and Planning staff to ensure the permits submitted comply with any relevant land use approvals.
During this same time, Engineering, Water and Electric combined their reviews. This not only
reduced the review times, it provided efficiencies in staffing and provided more clarity for our
customers by reducing the number of departments they needed to coordinate with.
Expedited Tenant Finish Permits: One of City Council’s 2017-2019 Top Ten Goals related to
ensuring commercial vitality, particularly for small businesses. As a way to assist all businesses
in Aspen, the Building Department led an effort to create the “EPIC” permit process, which
provides increased assistance and expedited review for any minor interior tenant finish or
remodel. These permits are given special attention during the pre-submittal process as staff
works with the applicant to submit a permit that can be quickly and easily approved so
businesses have more time to complete their remodels and be open more quickly. Projects that
begin construction without a permit are not eligible for this expedited permit process, which
has also increased the number of projects that require a building permit actually applying for
one. Since its creation at the beginning of 2018, over 50 permits have been reviewed under
this process, with an average turnaround time of 12 days. Going forward, staff is exploring a
sister program for minor residential remodels.
Customer Focus Group: One of the main improvement steps from the fall 2017 focus group
work, was the creation of a ComDev & Engineering (CD&E) Customer Advisory Group, consisting
of 12-15 frequent customers, including planners, architects, engineers, and contractors. This
group has successfully assisted us in identifying additional areas to improve the City’s
development review processes. Using framework created through conversations with this group,
staff’s focus on improvements falls into three (3) main categories: Transparency, Turnaround
Times, and Managing Expectations.
Improved Transparency:
o Review of Comment Consistency. One area the CD&E Group identified was a
concern that different reviewers provided a different level of review and different
comments. As a result, staff reviewed a sampling of permits, and was able to
identify how to improve training for staff to ensure a consistent level of review
comments. It was determined that generally comments amongst reviewers in a
single department are consistent, but that some improvements to the type of
comments between departments could be more standardized. Staff from all
agencies has dedicated time and resources to increase consistency in the style and
type of comments provided in the permit review.
o HPC Referral Process.While commercial projects that go through an HPC or other
planning process have had an internal departmental referral process for years,
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this same process was not used for residential projects going through an HPC
Review. In early 2018, a formal referral process was implemented for all HPC and
planning projects, which has enabled a discussion early in the planning process to
identify any potential fatal flaws with a proposal, and the ability to address those
issues prior to HPC approval, rather than waiting for the permitting process when
it’s more difficult to resolve.
o Checklists.Over the past several years, Engineering and Building have developed
and refined checklists and submittal guides for their requirements, which are
available on the City’s website. Zoning is in the process of drafting a checklist of
their submittal requirements. These checklists/guides detail the documents
required for different scopes of work and provide some specific direction about
what the agencies need.
Turnaround Times:
o Delayed CMP. The City has required detailed Construction Management Plans be
submitted with most permits since 2006. While this has been a successful
program, our customers have indicated that the level detail needed to fully
complete these submissions is not known at the time of an initial permit submittal,
but is known when a permit is closer to issuance. To respond to our customer
needs and to save applicants and staff time from reviewing incomplete plans, the
CMPs may now submitted later in the permit review process.
o Right Sizing Resources. As mentioned above, the addition of new resources
within the zoning review team has been successful in dramatically improving
review times for Zoning. The Zoning Division now benefits from more effective
daily oversight, guidance, and teamwork. The additional capacity in zoning has
enabled zoning to participate in building permit pre-submittal meetings. These
pre-submittal meetings have been invaluable by assisting prospective building
permit applicants in preparation of their applications in a manner that checks off
all the zoning requirements. As a result, once a given permit is formally
submitted, zoning staff review time is significantly reduced. Additionally, Zoning
staff has been implementing efficiencies in the final site inspection processes.
Finally, Zoning, Engineering, and Building, now all have the capability to
outsource plan review if the review queue length increases significantly.
o Formalized issue and response for review agencies.Review staff issue their
comments directly to the applicant when they are completed, however, the City
now requires applicants to submit one response that addresses all reviewers’
comments. This process ensures that any conflicting comments between agencies
are caught more quickly, and ultimately results in a more efficient review
timeline.
o EPIC Permit Process. Explained in more detail above, this program has been
successful in reducing times for commercial interior tenant finish permits.
Managing Expectations:
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o Permit Fee Estimator. The Permit Fee Estimator allows applicants to accurately
estimate their permit fees during the early stages of their design process and all
the way up to permit submittal. Available to the public upon request, this
document allows an applicant to enter data about their project and receive an
accurate fee estimate. Prior to this document, applicants had to rely solely on
City staff to provide fee estimates as the City’s permit fee structure is quite
complex.
o Queue Tracking. Led by the Permit Coordinators, an internal permit queue was
adopted in 2017 to provide an objective assessment of permit priority for
individual review agencies. City staff are now able to provide more accurate
information to applicants regarding their exact place in the review queue, and
this process has begun to create a more equitable system for all permits, so the
least complex can be more easily reviewed and approved, and the appropriate
amount of time can be spent on the larger more complex permits. This has
allowed City staff, as well as applicants, to have a greater understanding of the
likely timelines for individual projects. Queue-ranking information is available to
the public upon request.
Updated Customer Surveys: Until the fall of 2018, the Community Development and
Engineering Departments surveyed customers once a year, which resulted in a very low response
rate. Responses from just 10-20 people were used to track the development review services
and process, when in reality we have over 1000 customers and process an estimated 100 land
use cases per year and 1,500 permits per year.
Using feedback from the CD&E Group, a new survey tool was implemented at the end of 2018,
which has already tripled the number of customer survey responses. These anonymous surveys
are sent to any person who contacts our offices in person, by email, or by phone (and provides
their email address), as well as to any customer who completes a major step in the development
review process (planning, permit pre-submittal, permit acceptance, inspections). Staff is
working with the CD&E Group to ensure “survey fatigue” does not set in during this initial pilot
of the new surveys.
Based on the data gathered to date, timelines for permit review continue to be a concern for
customers, and improvements made thus far are favorably recognized by the CD&E Group. Over
the summer months, staff will be focusing on ways to provide permit applicants with relevant
status updates and will be concurrently working on improving collaboration between staff and
applicant teams to resolve any conflicting review agency permit review comments. All these
items were identified by our customers via the Customer Survey.
Next Steps: In the spirit of continual dynamic improvement, staff is pursuing additional
initiatives to ensure that the City’s permit review processes respond to policy direction from
City Council and the needs of our customers. In the next year, with the help of our customer
service group, staff plans to review and work with a consultant to update the overall fees for
permits, complete process mapping for the updated process to find additional efficiencies, and
work to consolidate the various department checklists into a single source for applicants.
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By the end of October, the new electronic permits management system will provide permit
tracking and data metrics enabling confirmation of the efficacy of our next set of process
improvement efforts. This data, along with the on-going customer surveys, will further assist
in identifying where course corrections and refinement in the process may be realized.
Attachments:
Exhibit A: Summary of additional Permitting Process Improvements
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Exhibit A: Additional Permit Process Improvements
Year Item Description
2014 Traffic Impact Analysis
tool
An online tool that provides a menu of options for mitigating
traffic impacts of development. This eliminated the need for
complicated traffic analysis and provided a streamlined
customer focused tool.
2015 Engineering Design
Standards
A guide for developers that outlines The policies and design
guidelines to city agencies, design professionals, private
developers, and community groups for residential and
commercial development that ensure the public welfare,
preserve the community aesthetic, and promote efficient
development
2016 Tree Canopy Credit Allows development to take credit for preserving tree
canopies on their site reducing the size of water quality
infrastructure on their sites.
2016 Electronic Utility
Connection Permit
The utility connection permit was converted into an
electronic permit that is customer focused and reduces
ambiguity in the utility permitting process
2016 EPIC Permits The Building Department implemented an Expedited Tenant
Finish permit process to enable businesses to receive their
permits more quickly and therefore enable businesses to
open more quickly.
2017 Energy Code Toolkit An online tool that customers can use to determine
requirements projects will need to meet to comply with the
City’s stringent energy codes. This tool saves both staff and
customers time by consolidating over 10 complex
calculations into one easy to use spreadsheet.
2017 Mudflow Training The City offered mudflow training to engineering firms. This
training allowed these firms to perform mudflow calculations
in house instead of outsourcing the to only mudflow company
on the western slope.
2017 Standardized C Sheets This is an example civil set for engineers to use as a guide on
what a successful plan set looks like. This provides an
additional level of clarity for our customers.
2017 Updated Contractor
Licensing
In 2017, the City became the “Authority Having Jurisdiction”
to administer the Board of Examiners for Standardized
Testing (BEST) for the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond. To
improve the system, the City established a new streamlined
online testing process that enables contractors to take these
required tests at home, rather than requiring them to come
into the City Offices.
2018 CMP Online Training Online resource for contractors to inform them of our
construction mitigation requirements
2018 Plat Incorporation into GIS All of the plats within the boundaries of the City were
incorporated into GIS there by aiding customers in their plan
and permit preparation and aiding staff in permit review.
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INFORMATION MEMORANDUM
TO:City Council
FROM:Karen Harrington, Quality Office Director
THROUGH:Alissa Farrell, Interim Assistant City Manager/HRD
MEETING DATE:June 24, 2019
RE:Update: 2019 Citizen Survey
REQUEST OF COUNCIL:This is an information memo to update Council on changes to
the annual Citizen Survey.
BACKGROUND: In 2019, staff selected a new vendor for the annual Citizen Survey:
Elevated Insights. Elevated Insights (EI) was selected primarily because its proposed
approach will reach more citizens, provide more options for survey completion, and allow
for improved data collection and analysis. This change should provide the city with an
invigorated, engagement-oriented survey approach, designed to expand community input
and provide more actionable information.
Who Will Be Surveyed
EI will send postcard invitations to a random sample of 2500 registered voters in Aspen
(up from 1700 in 2018). The postcard will include a code so that each respondent can
only answer the survey once through their laptops, tablets or smartphones. The goal is
to have a statistically valid sample of our residents’ opinions. In addition, the City is
considering whether and how to provide an additional, informal survey feedback option
for those who are not a part of the formal pool of respondents.
How Will Respondents Complete the Survey
Those who receive the postcards will have the option to complete the survey
electronically, using either a weblink or a code. Alternatively, they can request a paper
copy of the survey and mail it with a pre-addressed (with postage) return envelope when
completed.
When Will the Survey Be in the Community
EI will release the survey in August. It will be open for 4-6 weeks to gather a sufficient
number of responses. To increase the remind people to respond and increase the
response rate, the survey postcards will be mailed out twice.
When Will the Results be Available
The final report is anticipated to be available in late October. The strategic results will be
provided to Council in November.
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MEMORANDUM of INFORMATION
TO:Mayor and City Council
FROM:Richard Pryor, Police Chief
THRU:Scott Miller
DATE OF MEMO:June 20, 2019
MEETING DATE:June 25, 2019
RE: Community Safety during July 4th and New Year’s Eve
SUMMARY: This is an informational memo that requires no action by Council. The Aspen
Police Department in conjunction with the City’s Special Events Department is working to
increase public safety at all City sponsored events. Two major community wide events, the 4
th
of July parade and New Year’s Eve are our initial focus in 2019. As of the date of this memo the
Colorado Information Analysis Center (CIAC) has informed us that there are no current threats
to Aspen for the 4th July. However, we wish to continuously improve our operations and
systems to bring the safest possible environment for all residents and visitors during high profile
special events.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL ACTION: Previous Council’s have provided funding for various
enhanced security measures for both events, for example providing for crowd control fencing
and security guards.
BACKGROUND: The people of Aspen are fortunate to live in a relatively safe community in an
environment that enables us to feel somewhat detached from hazards and threats that are more
prevalent in other communities. It is the responsibility of a special event to ensure that the public
can feel safe while enjoying activities. At the same time the public should be able to trust thatthose
responsible have prepared for any incident that might arise. We are an isolated rural community
with limited resources. We work well in partnership with neighboring jurisdictions to plan and
prepare for, as well as respond to, natural and man-made hazards and incidents. However, it is our
responsibility to support special events when considering the modern-day environment which
includes large volumes of people in limited spaces, dignitary visits and high-profile events with a
national and international reach.
DISCUSSION: This year the Special Events and Police Departments have conducted an initial
“All-Hazards Threat and Risk Assessment” with respect to special events. This has recently been
received in draft form and is currently being reviewed. A work session with City Council will be
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scheduled in the future regarding emergency management where, if desired, we will be able to
brief council on this report. More specifically with respect to the 4th of July parade this year we
have made some changes to our approach which are summarized below:
Using a more efficient and expedited detour route. This year the detour route for the
public (excluding RFTA and parade floats/vehicles) will be Hallam Street. Many will
recognize it as a similar detour to that used during the bridge construction in 2018. This
maintains consistent two-lane traffic flow while reducing the number of intersections used
in the route. Please see the attached map. The detour on Hallam St will start at around
9am and will be for a maximum of 6 hours. We realize this is a significant change for
some West End homeowners and will be providing public information and noticing
beginning on Wednesday June 26th.
Bringing in Colorado State Patrol (CSP) to assist with traffic management. Traffic
management is CSP’s specialty. Their support for the detour route will allow the Aspen
Police Department to put more resources towards responding to calls for service from the
community and visitors. CSP will also be able to help expedite the traffic out of town after
the parade.
Obstructing routes at key locations. In areas where the crowds will be densely located
and where there are no physical barriers to separate crowds from traffic, we will be moving
in heavy equipment that will provide a physical safety barrier. These will be used primarily
during and around the parade. Some routes may remain closed off during the day.
Standing Up the Incident Management Team (IMT). The Aspen Police Department
requested that the Pitkin County IMT assist with management of the 4
th July special event
incident. The IMT provides additional organizational resources to help plan and operate
the event. The IMT creates the operational plan for the event, for example allocating
staffing, ensuring the safe ingress and egress of traffic, detour management, coordination
of bus routes and emergency access. This enables certain resources to be pre-positioned to
better serve our community. It also frees up Aspen Police staff to focus on response to
calls for service.
We would ask that Council members be attuned to the event environment this 4
th of July and take
the opportunity to appreciate the day from a public safety perspective while also enjoying a
national day of celebration.
FINANCIAL/BUDGET IMPACTS: The Special Events Department and the Police Department
are sharing costs and will absorb within their existing budgets.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Information only. If Council members have any questions,
please contact Nancy Lesley at Special Events or Bill Linn at the Police Department.
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