While larger municipalities often boast greater resources and staff capacity, smaller communities with populations under 50,000 often face unique challenges in managing building permits, planning applications, or issuing licenses. In many of these communities, municipal building departments consist of a handful of employees tasked with handling an increasing number of permit applications, especially during peak construction season.
A Growing Need for Streamlined Processes
The need for more efficient permitting solutions has been amplified by recent demographic trends. While some suggest that the out-migration from big cities to smaller towns was a temporary phenomenon tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, data tells a different story. Many rural and smaller communities in North America and Europe had already been experiencing growth prior to the pandemic. Two primary factors driving this trend include:
- Retirement of Baby Boomers: As Baby Boomers reach retirement age, many are choosing to leave urban centres for quieter, more affordable living in smaller communities.
- Rise of Remote Work: The proliferation of remote work arrangement has enabled professionals to live and work from virtually anywhere, sparking a migration to areas with lower living costs and a higher quality of life.
This steady population growth in smaller communities has placed additional pressure on already constrained building departments.
Limited Staff and Resources
This leads us to the primary challenge for smaller municipalities – staffing. With limited personnel, tasks such as processing applications, conducting inspections, and handling inquiries can quickly overwhelm teams. Seasonal construction booms exacerbate this issue, forcing municipalities to juggle competing priorities and risk delays in project approvals. Moreover, smaller municipalities are often operating on tighter budgets, making it difficult to hire additional staff to manage the workload.
The Challenge of Manual Processes
For many smaller communities, permitting processes remain manual and paper-based. This approach is not only-time consuming but also prone to errors, such as misplaced documents, missing signatures, or miscalculated fees. Manual systems make it difficult to track applications, resulting in inefficiencies and frustration for both staff and residents. Further, a lack of data and reporting capacity hinders strategic planning and decision making, while poorly documented files and processes can prove to be a legal nightmare, should anything go missing or an incident occurs.
The Rise of ePermitting
ePermitting is no longer a tool merely reserved for large cities with extensive budgets and infrastructure. These digital systems streamline the permit application, review, and approval process, reducing the manual workload for smaller teams. By automating tasks such as document submission, fee collection, and inspection scheduling, ePermitting allows communities to handle growing demand without the need to significantly increase staffing levels. Check out our ePermitting ebook to learn more about this growing trend.
While ePermitting systems offer a solution to many of these challenges, smaller municipalities may encounter resistance to adopting new technologies. However, there are ways for smaller municipalities to successfully adopt ePermitting systems and address their permitting challenges:
- Seek external funding: Governments and organizations often provide grants and funding programs specifically for digital transformation projects.
- Start small: Implement changes gradually, focusing on the most critical areas first.
- Engage and train staff: Engaging and training your staff can help ease the transition and build confidence in the new system.
- Highlight the benefits: Emphasize the cost savings, efficiency, and improved service delivery that ePermitting can offer. This will help overcome any resistance to change questions on the return on investment.
Key Takeaways
Smaller municipalities face unique challenges in managing their permitting processes, from limited staff to outdated manual systems. However, adopting solutions like ePermitting systems can provide a lifeline, enabling communities to handle increasing permit volumes and seasonal construction demands effectively. The shift to ePermitting not only alleviates pressure, but also sets the stage for long-term efficiency and service delivery to the residents and businesses of smaller communities.