Politics & Government
Mount Vernon Reduces Building Plan Review Times
City has reduced its plan-review turnaround time by 60 percent.
Caption: Building Commissioner Daniel P. Jones, center, and Mayor Richard Thomas, right.
MOUNT VERNON – Building Department officials announced today that the City has reduced its plan-review turnaround time by 60 percent.
Commissioner Daniel P. Jones credited a new digital content management system, the use of outside permit and plan examiners and a focus on customer service.
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“The good news we’re bringing today is phenomenal,” said Jones, who became the City’s building commissioner in June, 2018. “People used to say to me, ‘I can’t get my permit.’ Guess what? Permit review is now down.”
According to statistics presented today by Commissioner Daniel P. Jones, the number of days for a plan review fell from 32.6 days in January of 2018 to 2.3 days in February 2019. That translates to about a 60 percent decrease when the average review time for 2018 is compared with the 2019 year-to-date average review time.
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The number of days for a permit review has fallen from 18.7 days in January 2018 to 3.2 days in February 2019, according to statistics released by the Building Department.
Jones noted that one of the reasons plans and permits have been expedited is because since August documents have been digitized, sparing the public and department staffers the time-consuming chore of searching for paper records in file cabinets.
Mayor Richard Thomas praised the Building Department’s accomplishments and he celebrated a new day of efficiency for developers and property owners.
“It’s been a tremendous transformation,” said Mayor Thomas, who promised the public that more efficiency will come to City Hall. “Just because we can’t see that shining city in the distance doesn’t mean we’re not coming around the mountain.”
Thomas said that he is now working on convincing his fellow elected officials on the City Council to hire four building inspectors to increase efficiency. Currently the City only has one building inspector for the entire city, which Jones called inadequate for a municipality of 80,000 people.
