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September 2, 2004
The Stone Age. The Barbarian Invasions.
The U.S. building permit submittal process.
Unfortunately these three items share
the same level of sophistication, according to the results
of a recent study conducted by the National Conference of
States on Building Codes & Standards (NCSBCS), with the
AIA, who are attempting to update technology associated with
the collection of permits.
The survey, conducted last winter and
released in June, studied state and local government techniques
for building document submittal, revealing seriously outdated
procedures. The AIA is part of the NCSBCS’s National
Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age.
Out of 120 jurisdictions representing
16 states and 26 major cities, only 16 accept plans electronically
over the internet, the survey shows. Meanwhile less than 10%
of reporting jurisdictions share electronically submitted
plans with other districts, and 47 of the responding areas
don’t accept electronic plans at all. Of those who do
accept plans digitally, only about 5 or six, says NCSBCS Executive
Director Bob Wible, keep the process electronic all the way
through (most state governments require documents to be wet
sealed on paper).
“It’s 2004. I was astounded
by how few jurisdictions had implemented any changes at all,”
says Paul Mendelsohn, Senior Director of State and Local Affairs
at the AIA, who attributes the lack of movement mostly to
squeezed budgets, bureaucratic inertia, out-of-date laws,
and the lack of interoperability in available software. The
advantages of updating the technology, Mendelsohn adds, include
speed, accuracy, safety, and-importantly-economic benefits.
“If a city doesn’t have a good system and can’t
get plans passed quickly companies will jump elsewhere,”
he points out.
The good news is that thirty three of
54 responding jurisdictions said they expect to accept electronic
plans within the next one to two years, and the involved organizations
are doing everything they can to make this happen. The AIA
is considering hiring a consulting firm to help better lay
out the case for more digital plan sharing by the end of the
year. Meanwhile, the NCSBCS is attempting to help jurisdictions
countrywide update laws concerning electronic sign-off, and
create new standards for interoperability of building permit
data.
Sam
Lubell
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