Dear Customers,
Happy New Year to you all. We want to share the progress we made in 2023 and the numerous operational improvements we accomplished as part of our ongoing efforts to serve you better.
Working with our partners in the Permit Center, SF Planning, Public Works, SF Fire and the other permitting departments, we’ve made a series of changes to streamline our work, speed up our review times, and provide a better customer experience.
In 2023, we created a new online portal for many solar permits utilizing SolarAPP+, and built online tools so you can submit records requests online and receive copies of plans electronically. We also uploaded more than 29,000 building plans from 1920 to 1960 to make them easier to access.
We relocated the Information Counter from the first floor lobby to the Permit Center on the second floor, adjacent to the Help Desk and Over-the-Counter (OTC) permit application review counters. Bringing all of our frontline operations into the same area created a more cohesive and sensible layout for OTC permit applicants and our staff.
This was also the year in which we saw some of our earlier efforts to improve the permitting process – such as Pre-Plan Check and Dynamic Staffing Assignments – begin to really produce results. Compared to last January, our October project assignment times were 33% faster, and we conducted the first plan review at the building station 43% faster. That’s a full three weeks faster in October versus January – a terrific overall gain in just 10 months!
In May, we offered a comprehensive proposal to support the Mayor’s Housing for All directive, including teaming up with City partners at the end of the year to implement a new 100% digital In-House Review process using concurrent electronic plan review to provide better, faster service at less cost to you. We’re continuing to improve on this new process and just yesterday added a new page of In-House Review forms and applications portal to make it easier for you to find the documents and submission pages you need to apply for a building permit using In-House Review.
And the Results Review function in the Permit Tracking System (PTS) that we introduced in July substantially improves the transparency of our reviews and applicant revision time and activity, including documenting the number and nature of project rechecks.
In 2023, DBI also played a critical role in helping get the City back on track. From leading the way on code changes and clear guidelines to support commercial to residential conversions (to be published soon!) to conducting joint inspections to help fill vacant downtown buildings with pop-up businesses to streamlining the process to legalize commercial awnings, we leaned in to help address some of the most pressing challenges facing San Francisco.
We hope you are starting to see the benefits of these changes and there’s much more to come this year. As always, we welcome and appreciate your feedback on our efforts at dbi.communications@sfgov.org.
Thank you for your ongoing support and partnership.