# Plan Review Times



## Mr209Smith (Dec 17, 2021)

Happy Holidays everyone!

We are getting pressure from a council members spouse regarding plan review times. We are currently sitting at 5-6 weeks for first review and 4-5 weeks for subsequent reviews. This excludes minor permits such as a reroof, HVAC changeout, etc. It is particularly difficult for us to improve plan review times for projects that have to be routed to other divisions for which we have no control over, as the Building division isn't normally the last to review these types of plans. We are also experiencing a mass exodus of employees over the last few months, so staffing is an issue.

I volunteered to find out how we compare with other building divisions. What are your plan review turn-around times looking like these days?

Thank you!


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## steveray (Dec 17, 2021)

We have a State law for 30 days per submission....We end up there far to much for my liking


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## e hilton (Dec 17, 2021)

I have had drawings in for permit in montgomery county maryland (dc suburb) for interior remodel of a bank branch.  No structural, no hvac, no outside work.  Plumbing is only to make restrooms ada compliant.  Electrical is a few light fixtures and convenience outlets.  Submitted first week of Oct.  Nothing sent back to us yet, they are estimating the permit might be ready mid-jan. 12 weeks.  And any resubmittal will add time.


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## mtlogcabin (Dec 17, 2021)

IRC projects usually within 10 working days for permit issue provided all drawings and related documents are submitted and complete
Commercial IBC is about 4-5 weeks before the comments are sent and then the ball is in the designers court as to when they respond.
Reponses to comments are reviewed within 1-2 working days


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## Pcinspector1 (Dec 17, 2021)

Pretty much the same as mtlogcabin, except IRC plans about 3-5 days and if they build the same plan, 1-2 days.


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## Rick18071 (Dec 17, 2021)

Most within a week except for large complicated jobs could take up to 3 weeks.


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## classicT (Dec 17, 2021)

Our target dates (which we seldom do not meet) are as follows;

New Commercial - 17 working days for first review, 10 working days for subsequent reviews, and 7 working days for a change​Major Commercial Improvement - 12 working days for first review, 7 working days for subsequent reviews, and 7 working days for a change​Minor Commercial Improvement - 7 working days for first review, 7 working days for subsequent reviews, and 7 working days for a change​New SFD - 9 working days for first review, 7 working days for subsequent reviews, and 7 working days for a change​Res. Improvement - 7 working days for first review, 7 working days for subsequent reviews, and 7 working days for a change​Signs - 7 working days for first review, 7 working days for subsequent reviews, and 7 working days for a change​


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## Keystone (Dec 17, 2021)

Same as Rick18071, however that is building code review only. No zoning or other departments.


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## jar546 (Dec 18, 2021)

Mr209Smith said:


> Happy Holidays everyone!
> 
> We are getting pressure from a council members spouse regarding plan review times. We are currently sitting at 5-6 weeks for first review and 4-5 weeks for subsequent reviews. This excludes minor permits such as a reroof, HVAC changeout, etc. It is particularly difficult for us to improve plan review times for projects that have to be routed to other divisions for which we have no control over, as the Building division isn't normally the last to review these types of plans. We are also experiencing a mass exodus of employees over the last few months, so staffing is an issue.
> 
> ...


Is the 5-6 weeks BD only or does that include planning/zoning?

I have 30 days by law to respond with approval or denial with deficiencies.


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## rktect 1 (Dec 20, 2021)

WOW.  I thought we were slow when we hit 3-4 weeks and that was more due to outsourcing (third party) since we lost our electrical, mechanical and plumbing inspectors.  Otherwise, in house we never would have gone over 3 weeks.  I have sent out to third party reviews a total of 120 permits this year out of 3500.  Maybe 1000-1200 were over the counter permits (windows, roofs, AC, furnaces) leaving me and one other person plus/minus 2400 permits all under 3 weeks.  We have been swamped.  Of those permits I do have to send a bunch to engineering in another building and to the fire department.  We still do not go over 3 weeks unless the third party reviewer is involved.


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## fatboy (Dec 20, 2021)

10 working days for remodels, 20 working days for new construction. 

Now that is for Building, other departments are pretty good about hitting it, but sometimes........


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## Beniah Naylor (Dec 20, 2021)

Of course it depends with the ebb and flow of the local industry.

If it takes 18 days for commercial, and 10 days for residential, that means we are pretty busy.


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## tmurray (Dec 20, 2021)

Very similar to ClassicT here


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## Mr209Smith (Dec 20, 2021)

jar546 said:


> Is the 5-6 weeks BD only or does that include planning/zoning?
> 
> I have 30 days by law to respond with approval or denial with deficiencies.


That is for every division within the city that wants to review the plans. Building, Planning, Engineering, Fire, etc. Building never takes the full 5-6 weeks.


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## tmurray (Dec 20, 2021)

Have you considered concurrent reviews? This is the way we do it here and while there is some re-work, it does cut down on turn-around times.


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## Mr209Smith (Dec 20, 2021)

tmurray said:


> Have you considered concurrent reviews? This is the way we do it here and while there is some re-work, it does cut down on turn-around times.


Originally, plan check letters would be sent by each division independently once they finished their review, which led to multiple resubmissions for each submittal and too many people complained about having to revise plans multiple times. Now with Bluebeam, we only send the comments out once every division has reviewed them, which means we wait for the less staffed divisions to play catch-up. 

Grading/Encroachment, and other permits are allowed to run concurrently.


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## tmurray (Dec 20, 2021)

You can still send one list of requirements on behalf of all departments regardless of concurrent reviews.

While I would question why this is coming from the spouse of a member of council, this can help drive change and improve the process overall. 

One thing we discovered was that it wasn't that some departments were understaffed, just that they did not prioritize responding for these projects. When they are given a deadline or that their comments are not taken into account, all of a sudden they magically manage to find the time to respond.


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## Rick18071 (Dec 20, 2021)

Rick18071 said:


> Most within a week except for large complicated jobs could take up to 3 weeks.


I do building, mechanical, plumbing and electric in this time. I don't do zoning but it is always done before I am.


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## Mr209Smith (Dec 20, 2021)

tmurray said:


> You can still send one list of requirements on behalf of all departments regardless of concurrent reviews.
> 
> While I would question why this is coming from the spouse of a member of council, this can help drive change and improve the process overall.
> 
> One thing we discovered was that it wasn't that some departments were understaffed, just that they did not prioritize responding for these projects. When they are given a deadline or that their comments are not taken into account, all of a sudden they magically manage to find the time to respond.


Can you elaborate on sending plan check comments? I am having trouble understanding how it would work.

When I review plans, I leave comments on the plans in Bluebeam and, when finished, leave the session. Once every division has reviewed the plans and added comments, staff sends the PDF with all comments back to the contact.

Previously, before we were doing electronic plan review, I would use my marked up set of plans to generate a letter with the comments and e-mail the contact directly. In this manner they may get my comments back a week before they receive comments from the planning division. We ran into the issue of people resubmitting based on the plan check letter building sent out before they even got plan check comments from the other divisions, no matter how much we warned them.

How do we send one list of requirements if all divisions haven't finished reviewing the plans?

I agree staffing isn't always an issue, and if the council wanted to, they could pressure fire or engineering into doing their building permit plan review faster, but the Fire Marshal is the only one who reviews plans for fire, and that is only one of his many many hats. There was only one person reviewing plans in engineering and he has retired, but he was the senior engineer for the city, so he too had many hats. Those two divisions are most often the ones we are waiting for before we send comments out.


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