Testimony before the DC City Council Committee on Business, Consumer and Regulatory Affairs

Transcription

1 Testimony before the DC City Council Committee on Business, Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Regarding B , Department of Buildings Establishment Act of 2018 Mary Fitch, AICP, Hon. AIA Executive Director, AIA DC April 19, 2018 Please accept these comments on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA DC). AIA DC represents more than 2,300 architects in Washington and is the fifth largest AIA chapter in the country. The first part of our testimony focuses on the need to improve current processes within the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) for granting building permits. The second part summarizes views of AIA DC members on the proposed legislation. The third part suggests a way that the legislation might be improved. Part 1: Helping to Improve the Permitting Process For the past two years, the Chapter has been working with personnel at the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) to help streamline the building permit process. 1 The slowness of DC s permit process should be a subject of serious concern for the Council because it has become a real impediment to the economic development of the city. And its not just slow, it s unpredictable, forcing builders and developers to have contingency budgets to handle the carrying costs of a project while they wait months, even years, for a permit. The city doesn t benefit because slow permitting delays the revenue from property taxes that new development would bring. In fact, nobody wins in this process; it raises the cost of everything in the city. The Council could literally reduce the cost of housing in DC by fixing the permit process 2. 1 See Appendix for the results of a 2016 Survey of the AIA DC Membership on current processes 2 Development Process Efficiency: Cutting through the Red Tape. National Association of Home Builders, November From page 1: In the quest for creative solutions [to housing affordability], less glamorous but often more important factors in housing costs are often overlooked. In fact, if there is one silver bullet to improve housing affordability, it is probably not found in a program or subsidy or type of mortgage. Instead it is more likely to be found among the practices, processes and regulations to which virtually every house built in the

2 DCRA has made some improvements over the last two years, including: 1. A more user friendly website, with many online tools 3 : 2. Establishment of a training program for reviewers (National Capitol Region Building Code Academy) 3. Beta testing of new types of the development strategies like Velocity. These actions have helped, but there is much more to be done with the fundamentals of the department to make the process function. We believe that there are many people at DCRA who are working hard to make a difference. A culture has grown up there, however, that allows review times to lag with very few consequences. Efforts to tweak the process often end up doing the opposite. Third party review, for example, is a way to use trusted, vetted outside reviewers to, in effect, expand DCRA s review staff. Applicants pay the reviewer, so it is a more expensive route for the applicant. With a set of plans that have been thoroughly reviewed and stamped by that DCRA approved reviewer, a permit should follow in short order. It generally doesn t; these approved projects can languish in DCRA for several months. Another example is changes that affect how a permit should be filed: changes to software or code interpretations happen all the time but without notice. Further, there is no consolidated checklist in the city for a permit. In addition, there are no certain dates; you are told your permit review will be complete in four to six weeks instead of an actual calendar date. Finally, sister agencies that are required to sign off on building permits have separate systems and processes further delaying the permit. For example, the Department of the Energy and Environment (DOEE), the Department of Transportation (DDOT), DC WATER and the Department of Health operate outside the process. This means that you could get all the way through the process with DCRA and still be stuck; and with these agencies you have no consolidated tracking system because they aren t all in ProjectDox. Indeed, the Velocity Program, which allows people to pay a large fee to get through the permit process much faster, doesn t really result in a permit at the end. Conceivably you could pay your $50,000 and still wait several months for a permit because DCRA can t guarantee that these other agencies will respond in a timely fashion. This month, the Chapter began a data collection effort to determine the length of the permit process for a variety of different building types. With actual data, rather than anecdotal evidence, we believe we can help the city develop a more responsive permit process. We hope to have this data available by Fall We urge the Council to view the slowness of the building permit process with as much alarm as it has the enforcement issues. No one is recommending that projects be reviewed with less care or rigor. United States is subject. Lengthy and complicated review processes represent an especially difficult challenge to affordably priced housing 3 The tools include (1) online availability of plats and plat certification; (2) online shop drawings for elevators and fire protection systems; (3) Data Connect for building information; (4) permit application tacker; (5) performance dashboard; and (6) SurDocs for land record management. AIA DC Testimony on B Page 2

3 Compared to other area jurisdictions who have equally rigorous processes, however, we are much slower. Part 2: How the Department of Building Proposal Might help When we received notice of this proposal to create a Department of Buildings, we surveyed our membership to gauge whether the membership felt this was a good idea, a bad idea, or more information was needed. 61% of the membership wanted more information, 35% thought it was a good idea and 4% were not in favor. Some of our members feel it s a good idea because they feel DCRA has too many responsibilities; others worry that this may provide another excuse to slow down the issuance of building permits. With that in mind, AIA DC s Board of Directors does not object the proposal. At the same time, however, AIA DC wants the legislation, if implemented, to lead to real improvements to the permitting process. Part 3: How you can make it even better The legislation as currently drafted is very general. We believe it can be significantly improved by making the requirements of the implementation and transition plan more specific. First, we suggest that performance metrics be required so that improvements can be measured. Second, we believe streamlining the permit process should also be included in the transition plan. This would include stronger interagency coordination among all parties that have a role in the building permit system. The advice we have received from other jurisdictions and national experts is that one can t tweak a broken permitting process that the culture must be changed by overhauling it entirely. Creating a Department of Buildings offers a rare opportunity to implement such a fundamental overhaul. This won t be easy, but if done correctly, the city will benefit significantly. AIA DC welcomes the opportunity to work with your staff to craft performance metrics based on best practices from jurisdictions around the country that have successfully improved their permitting processes, and more generally, to design a fundamental overhaul of the current system. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this important issue, and we will be pleased to respond to any questions you may have. AIA DC Testimony on B Page 3

4 Appendix Results of AIA DC s 2016 Permit Issues Study 1. Permits that take the longest: No consensus pretty much all 2. Permits that take the shortest amount of time: Walk-throughs 3. Using a Permit Expediter? 76% said yes. 4. Has this improved the speed of your application? 61% said no. AIA DC Testimony on B Page 4

5 5. Are you using 3 rd Party Review? 60% said no. 6. If yes, has it improved the speed of your permit? 68% said no. AIA DC Testimony on B Page 5

6 7. Has pursuing LEED certification reduced delay of Green Review? 92% said no or the review time is about the same. 8. Do DOEE reviews increase the length of process or do they seem about right? 75% said they make the process longer. Selected Comments: Having a permit expediter has no effect on DOEE Reviews. Process is constantly being updated making it difficult to determine to predict how long it will take. Seems redundant that you have to upload a project through ProjectDox and then upload again to their site. AIA DC Testimony on B Page 6

7 9. Do DDOT Reviews make the process longer? 75% said yes Selected comments DDOT has been inconsistent on reviews and requirements Poor integration of partner agencies; it s not the people, it s the process management. They do not have a clear path for approvals in the public space. 10. Is there a specific improvement that you would like DCRA to consider to improve the speed of review? Selected comments: Separate review center for smaller projects (not just residential). Projects that are A/E certified under $500,000 should go through an accelerated process. Group projects by size so that smaller projects don t get stuck behind larger ones. There should be an app that shows you where you are in the review process. A floor dedicated to the PDRM process. Project managers a go-to contact person especially for larger projects. 11. Are there issues about the permitting process on which you think the Chapter should intervene? Selected comments: Find out why having A/E certified plans is not speeding up the process. Voice our concerns and issues to DCRA. DCRA seems not to understand just how slow the process has become. AIA DC Testimony on B Page 7