Regional and Urban Design Committee

Have you worked with a municipal 'Project Manager' - a person on the public side of the counter that assists in navigation of permits and entitlements?  I'm interested in hearing about positives and 'lessons learned' from this approach - where it's being used. Thanks for sharing even a sentence or two.

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Michael Malinowski AIA
AIACC President Elect
Applied Architecture, Inc.
Sacramento CA
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Thanks for your question. Personally, I have not. I wished we had such an "ombudsman" in our city but here the private side needs to hire "expediters: to accelerate permits. The office of permits allows questions, though. For a whole set of questions, they allow a code clarification meeting for which the questions must be submitted up front and in writing. Based on that they sit down with a plan reviewer and a fire expert for a nominal fee to clear things up.

As far as zoning and entitlements, the City of Baltimore schedules mandatory site plan review meetings to see if what is proposed is permissible as a use. The zoning check is also the first step of the plan review itself, even prior to submitting a full fee. So if a project is not allowed by zoning, this response comes through early. 

I hope this helps.

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Klaus Philipsen FAIA
Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
Baltimore MD
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Thanks for the feedback Klaus.  If you hear about places that seem to handle planning entitlements more effectively than typical, I'd be interested in hearing about them.  The presubmittal meeting is a great tool to get off on the right track.

PS: really enjoy your BLog - keep up the great writing!

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Michael Malinowski AIA
AIACC President Elect
Applied Architecture, Inc.
Sacramento CA
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Kalamazoo Michigan has a system where the Inspection team meets every Wednesday morning and goes over any job pending, problems, and new projects.  They let us make appointments for 1/2 hour meetings with them to discuss new projects, concepts, etc.  We can bring amateur clients, contractors, etc. so they can learn first hand what we (the Architects) are talking about.  At the same time it gets the inspection team familiar with the projects.  Often, I will go back in midstream to again pass the job by them to discuss various aspects.  

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Nelson B. Nave AIA
Owner
Nelson Breech Nave, AIA Architect
Kalamazoo MI
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Thanks Paul!  In fact Sacramento is one of the few places I've found that have a dedicated position; Will Weitman if you recall was actually called the Planning Ombudsman for many years until he passed away; and they never did fill those shoes in a sense.   I'm hoping to find some current examples of best practices.

Cheers

Mike

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Michael Malinowski AIA
AIACC President Elect
Applied Architecture, Inc.
Sacramento CA
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Paul Schmidt Architect
Granite Bay CA
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Hi Michael. Greg Hathaway was permit manager for the City of Sacramento in the 1980's. He was very effective. They abolished the position during one of the recessions. Tim Sullivan may recall the details. He is currently with the building department at the City of West Sacramento. 

Michael,

I think I am doing the PM work you are inquiring about. My position was created uniquely to bridge the navigation of land use, Urban Design, and building permits. As an Architect (w/alot of urban renewal portfolio), this puts me in the unique position of being on the "other side" of the table for the first time in 25 years! This is a unique advantage as a resource for developers and Architects when dealing with specialized (and sometimes siloed) municipal skills such as planners, engineers etc.  Kudos to my boss for designing the position. I am currently serving as a "connector" within the permitting process here in Hillsboro (which is growing fast with clients like Intel, Genentech, Solarworld)both inter-departmental and inter-agency. This is in adition to our Pre-Application input meetings (free) which provide a one-hour all-disciplines feedback session for developers. My work is more specific, and I think we are considering a PM that would manage the entirety of the process also. I would only add that I see an Architect's skill set as better suited to add value at crucial moments of opportunity along the way relative to Design and Sustainability.

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David McIlnay AIA
Urban Design Planner
City of Hillsboro, Oregon
Hillsboro OR
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