Approving or denying building permits and other land-use applications is an important role of local governments but one that often draws criticism from developers and citizens alike. A task force of planning and development review professionals teamed up with university researchers to benchmark with three national leaders in development review—Henderson, Nevada; San Diego, California; and Tallahassee, Florida—and discovered 78 distinctive practices contributing to the leaders' success. A few of the noteworthy practices are highlighted here:

• The establishment of an external advisory group composed of industry professionals.
• Time-and-motion studies conducted to identify the true costs of services as a basis for establishing service fees.
• The adoption of a Customer Bill of Rights.
• Interlocal agreements with nearby jurisdictions established for the performance of selected development review duties—either as service provider or service recipient.
• The use of advanced tracking and review software.

In addition, selected practices differed even among the leaders, but five characteristics were found in all three jurisdictions:

• A commitment to delivering services at a level and cost that match the scale of development in their community.
• Customer-focused services.
• Transparency.
• Reliance on high-functioning technology.
• Extraordinary relationship with Information Technology support personnel.

A new book copublished by the Alliance for Innovation and the University of North Carolina’s School of Government reports on this benchmarking study and describes an array of proven practices for bringing greater fairness, thoroughness, and speed to the development review process.  Click here for more information, see: http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.433425/it.A/id.1529/.f