Dec. 6, 2011 – The City of Omaha’s Planning Department is pleased to announce today that they have accepted more than 1000 permits online since the launch of this service less than two months ago. The online permitting, which began October 11, 2011, has accepted the thousand plus permit applications from more than 100 different contractors.
The first phase is complete and over 20 different types of permits are now online for issuance. Since the initial launch, the city has accepted 19% of all permits being offered online from its website. The second phase of online permitting is expected to begin the 2nd Quarter of 2012. The second phase of permits will include complex building permits requiring the uploading of plan documents and internal review.
The Planning Department and its business partners are already seeing the online permitting system paying for itself. Since its launch the city, has saved around 76 work hours allowing the department to reallocate resources in order to improve customer service to the citizens of Omaha. Postage and office supply costs have also been reduced. Contractors using the system are seeing increased productivity due to less time spent on obtaining permits.
“It allows Electrical Contractors the ability to streamline the permitting and inspection scheduling process,” said Mike Anderson, Great Plains Electric. “We are having good success and are happy the City is using Technology available today,” said Tom Eyman, Eyman Plumbing. “The system is very user friendly, quick and saves time and money since we don’t have to come downtown,” Mitzi Magsam, BradCo Contruction Total Roofing. “The ability to apply for a permit via the online permitting system and immediately have that permit issued has been great for our office,’ said John Hiller, Hiller Electric. “It takes out the guesswork of knowing how long it will be before a permit is issued, and has eliminated a lot of the paperwork on our end.”
