News
June 17, 2009
Mecklenburg County Receives National Award for Collaborative Effort With Raleigh
The National Association of Counties (NACO) has awarded its 2009 Achievement Award to an electronic residential plan review program developed jointly by the City of Raleigh and Mecklenburg County.
The City of Raleigh and Mecklenburg County have built an electronic residential plan review process that is more environmentally friendly and more customer friendly. The plan submittal process saves trees, gas, and time. Plans can be submitted via the web at any time. When the plans are approved, they are stored on a server instead of in cumbersome paper files. The approved plans can be permitted unlimited times without further review in either Raleigh or Mecklenburg County.
Tim Taylor, core process manager for Mecklenburg County Code Enforcement’s Residential Technical Assistance Center, said the collaborative aspect of the electronic plan review program by the county and Raleigh may have been instrumental in gaining recognition from NACO.
“I think that played a big part in us winning, how we worked with another municipality to pull this thing together,” Mr. Taylor said. “Two municipalities working together on a common issue is an enormous achievement.”
Jim Tschupp, assistant Development Services director for the City of Raleigh, agreed with Mr. Taylor. In 2006, Mr. Tschupp and Jim Bartl, director of Code Enforcement for Mecklenburg County, envisioned the need for the two local governments to work together to standardize the delivery of services to the development communities in both jurisdictions.
“This unique partnership, coupled with extraordinary talent from both jurisdictions, is resulting in highly effective technological solutions while reducing the demand on limited resources and lowering the total cost of investment,” Mr. Tschupp said.
Due to the success of the electronic residential plan review program, the City of Raleigh is working with Mecklenburg County to begin development of an electronic commercial plan review program and an electronic permit submittal process. Electronic submittal of commercial plans should go live in late 2010. This new program will allow multiple buildings to be constructed from the same set of approved plans.
Prepared by:
Sharon Felton
Development Services Public Information Officer
City Manager Department
For More Information Contact:
Jim Tschupp
Development Services Assistant Manager
City Manager Department
One Exchange Plaza, 7th Floor
Raleigh, NC 27601
919-516-2706
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