With permitted construction projects totaling more than $342 million, the city of Savannah broke its all-time record for total building permit valuations in 2013, city engineer Julie McLean told the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce’s Smart Lunch group Tuesday.
“We even surpassed our pre-recession high of 2008 by $30 million,” she said.
McLean and city revenue director Cindy Landolt updated the audience of mostly small business owners on city business and development data for 2013 and advised them of upcoming changes on tap for 2014.
Last year, McLean said, the city’s development services office:
• Issued more than 1,800 building permits, 4,900 trades permits and 170 site permits;
• Completed more than 6,500 building inspections, 16,500 trades inspections and 2,400 site inspections;
• Processed more than 1,300 new business approvals and issued more tghan 300 zoning code enforcements.
On construction permits, the workload has shifted to be more commercial than residential, McLean said, noting that 2013 was also a record year for commercial permits.
“This presents a unique challenge in that commercial projects require four times more staff time than residential to complete the plan reviews, permitting, inspections and closeout,” she said.
“And we have downsized to 14 fewer positions than we had in 2008.”
The department was recently authorized to add two new positions, including another building inspector, McLean said, making a total of 53 employees.
Customer service improvements already in place or on tap include building plan review meetings to complement the already established site plan review meetings, where builders and developers can bring their plans to city officials for informal review and suggestions.
“We started these last year, and they have been very well-received,” she said.
Perhaps the biggest improvement will be the electronic site plan submittals that should be implemented by the end of this year, McLean said.
“Offering e-plans will drastically simplify the submittal process. For example, no longer would eight sets of paper plans need to be submitted, and we’ll have an electronic record of what plans are submitted on what date,” she said.
“This will enable city staff to make comments electronically directly on the plans, therefore creating a clear and concise review. It should also shorten review time as each person who needs to look at the plan will have immediate access,” McLean said.
Landolt, whose department manages property and excise taxes, business and alcohol licensing and utility services, told business owners her department hoped to increase its outreach this year.
“We’re here to serve you, so please let us know what we can do to make doing business easier for you,” she said.
In 2013, the city’s revenue department processed 726 new business tax applications and completed the transition to a new data management system for business taxes and alcohol licensing, Landolt said. The city currently has 6,363 active business tax accounts and 527 active alcohol licenses.
In other Small Business Council news, chairman Joe Marchese turned the gavel over to Linda Jaeger, president and operations manager of Pioneer Construction Inc., who will serve as chairman for 2014.