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Home My WebLink AboutCOUNCIL - AGENDA ITEM - 07/19/2016 - SECOND READING OF ORDINANCE NO. 084, 2016, APPROPRAgenda Item 3 Item # 3 Page 1 AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY July 19, 2016 City Council STAFF Tom Leeson, Director, Comm Dev & Neighborhood Svrs SUBJECT Second Reading of Ordinance No. 084, 2016, Appropriating Prior Year Reserves in the Data and Communications Fund for Implementation of Electronic Plan Review. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Ordinance, unanimously adopted on First Reading on July 5, 2016, appropriates funds from the reserves of the Data and Communications Fund for implementation of electronic plan review as part of the building permit and development review process. STAFF RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends adoption of the Ordinance on Second Reading. ATTACHMENTS 1. First Reading Agenda Item Summary, July 5, 2016 (w/o attachments) (PDF) 2. Ordinance No. 084, 2016 (PDF) Agenda Item 5 Item # 5 Page 1 AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY July 5, 2016 City Council STAFF Tom Leeson, Director, Comm Dev & Neighborhood Svrs SUBJECT First Reading of Ordinance No. 084, 2016, Appropriating Prior Year Reserves in the Data and Communications Fund for Implementation of Electronic Plan Review. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The purpose of this item is to appropriate funds from the reserves of the Data and Communications Fund for implementation of electronic plan review as part of the building permit and development review process. STAFF RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends adoption of the Ordinance on First Reading. BACKGROUND / DISCUSSION This appropriation request will enable the City of Fort Collins to provide electronic plan review as part of the building permit and the development review process to the community and customers of those processes. Traditionally, plan review processes have required customers of development processes to submit large numbers of construction and development plans to the City for review and comment. The routing and review of these plans is not only environmentally unfriendly, but it is also inefficient, adding unnecessary time to an already complex process. The proposed electronic plan review process at the City will enable:  The electronic submittal of plans  Electronic routing and review of construction and development plans  Automated online access of review comments  A significant reduction of paper involved in review processes  Greater efficiency in the construction and development review processes Efforts to implement electronic plan submittal and review for building permit applications have been underway over the last two years. Currently, electronic document submittals are accepted on flash drives for all building permit types. By the end of the 3rd quarter of this year, the review of electronic documents for several project types of building permit submittals will be integrated into the City’s building permitting systems. This funding request will allow the City of Fort Collins to expand the service to all building permit types and to the entire development review process. This funding will purchase an Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) for the software that the City uses to manage development and code compliance processes. An ELA will allow the City to more broadly license a larger number of users as plan reviewers, such as Poudre Fire Authority, to the proposed electronic plan review processes. ATTACHMENT 1 Agenda Item 5 Item # 5 Page 2 The funding will allow for the purchase of all of the related technology to equip plan reviewers to efficiently review and mark comments on electronic plans on their PCs. Due to the large scale of construction plans, it is necessary to provide plan reviewers with the larger monitors on the PCs, as well as video displays in conference rooms used to discuss and review plans with internal staff and with customers of the process. Finally, the funding for this offer will provide for a contract with a consultant to adapt the current automated review processes for building permitting and development review. T he consultant will assist the City in the implementation and configuration of the electronic plan review module for the system used by the City. See Attachment 1 for a breakdown of the costs to implement Electronic Plan review. Due to training times and the need to transition efficiently from paper plan review to electronic plan review, it is anticipated that implementation will occur over the next 18 months. Benefits of implementing Electronic Plan review include:  The routing and reviewing of electronic documents rather than paper will improve the efficiency of the development review processes. It will reduce the time required for administrative staff to sort and deliver plans to reviewing departments.  Provide streamlined collaboration among reviewing departments by centralizing the related documents.  Increase accuracy and availability of reporting data, including review times and rounds of review. The move toward a more fully electronic review process, the tracking and measuring of the process will be more readily available.  Accomplish a high level of transparency through efficient publication of project documentation. By having process-related documents in a digital form, they are much more readily shared and accessible.  The purchase of an Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) will allow the inclusion of more plan reviewers to participate in and electronic plan review process. As well, it will serve to flatten the on ongoing costs associated with the annual maintenance of the software that is used to maintain the building permit, development review, and code compliance activities of the City. CITY FINANCIAL IMPACTS The total cost of implementation is $484,000 (Attachment 1). The funding source is the reserves of the Data and Communications Fund. Future ongoing expenses will increase by a small amount for equipment maintenance and replacement. Electronic Plan Review will result in significant savings in terms of the amount of paper used, as well as staff time due to the increase in efficiency. See Attachment 2 for the staff analysis of savings to the private sector, as well as to the City. PUBLIC OUTREACH Although there was no formal public outreach, designers, developers, and contractors that have been using the current level of electronic plan review have widely praised the City’s efforts to move in this direction and anticipate a wider use for electronic plan review in all aspects of development review. ATTACHMENTS 1. Cost Breakdown (PDF) 2. Electronic Plan Review Savings (PDF) -1- ORDINANCE NO. 084, 2016 OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS APPROPRIATING PRIOR YEAR RESERVES IN THE DATA AND COMMUNICATIONS FUND FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF ELECTRONIC PLAN REVIEW WHEREAS, traditionally the plan review processes has required customers of development processes to submit large numbers of construction and development plans in paper format to the City for review and comment; and WHEREAS, the routing and review of these plans is not only environmentally unfriendly, but it is also inefficient given available technologies; and WHEREAS, the Building Services department of the Community Development and Neighborhood Services area is proposing to implement electronic plan review as part of the building permit and development review process; and WHEREAS, the proposed electronic plan review process will enable the electronic submittal of plans, electronic routing and review of plans and automated online access of review comments, significantly reducing the amount of paper involved in the review processes and allow for overall greater efficiency; and WHEREAS, the estimated cost for the implementation is $484,000; and WHEREAS, Article V, Section 9, of the City Charter permits the City Council to make supplemental appropriations by ordinance at any time during the fiscal year, provided that the total amount of such supplemental appropriations, in combination with all previous appropriations for that fiscal year, does not exceed the current estimate of actual and anticipated revenues to be received during the fiscal year; and WHEREAS, Article V, Section 9 of the City Charter also permits the City Council to appropriate by ordinance at any time during the fiscal year such funds for expenditure as may be available from reserves accumulated in prior years, notwithstanding that such reserves were not previously appropriated. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS as follows: Section 1. That the City Council hereby makes and adopts the determinations and findings contained in the recitals set forth above. Section 2. That there is hereby appropriated from prior year reserves in the Data and Communications Fund the sum of FOUR HUNDRED EIGHTY FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS ($484,000) for expenditure in the Data and Communications Fund for implementation of electronic plan review as described above. -2- Introduced, considered favorably on first reading, and ordered published this 5th day of July, A.D. 2016, and to be presented for final passage on the 19th day of July, A.D. 2016. __________________________________ Mayor ATTEST: _______________________________ City Clerk Passed and adopted on final reading on the 19th day of July, A.D. 2016. __________________________________ Mayor ATTEST: _______________________________ City Clerk