DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PLAN

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D EVELOPMENTAL P ROCESS I MPROVEMENT PLAN

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ... 3

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ... 5

METHODOLOGY ... 8

FINDINGS ... 9

RECOMMENDATIONS ... 10

RECOMMENDATION FOR CONCIERGE POSITION ... 14

CHALLENGES WITH INCORPORATING CONCIERGE POSITION ... 15

CONCLUSION ... 15

REFERENCES ... 17

APPENDICES ... 18

APPENDIX A:NORTH RICHLAND HILLS DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS FLOW CHART ... 19

APPENDIX B:PROPOSED TIERED IMPLEMENTATION CHART ... 20

APPENDIX C:MOUSAMPLE:MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING ONE-STOP PHASE II ... 21

APPENDIX D:REFERENCE P&Z-BOACHECKLIST ... 25

APPENDIX E: CONCIERGE ROLE WITH CUSTOMER CENTRIC FOCUS ... 26

APPENDIX F:CONCIERGE ROLE DESCRIPTION ... 29

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This project explored the development and permit approval process for the City of North Richland Hills (NRH) with regard to the review process for development proposals, platting, and building permits. Currently, the city conducts a multi-departmental approach to review and approve the aforementioned, as well as other permits. NRH sought outside counsel to map out their platting and permit approval process in an effort to identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks, as well as to gather recommendations for process improvements that could be transferred to an electronic environment as they begin to implement this transition over the next 18 months.

The goals and objectives of this project were to eliminate inefficiencies and provide relevant recommendations to NRH. This project aims to assist NRH by providing insight into their internal processes thus improving their efficiency. To accomplish this our team met with the City staff, thoroughly reviewed the City’s website, compared local and state ordinances, and solicited information from other municipalities within Texas and throughout the United States.

Our methodology relied on following consistent internal project management practices as a team and with all externals stakeholders. This included a structured communication systems and divisions of labor based on expertise. Due to the nature of our project we relied

predominantly on qualitative data gathered from within the North Richland Hills Department along with comparison data from neighboring municipalities. Our primary focuses were indexing key stakeholders and contributors to the developmental process of NRH, identifying specific challenges, developing comparisons based on other cities with successful practices and making recommendations based on proven models.

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Our findings indicate the key departments involved in the development process are Building Inspections and Permits, Engineering, Fire Prevention, and Planning and Zoning (City of North Richland Hills, n.d). An immediate observed challenge was these departments report to different chains of command often leading to a lack of accountability and oversight. An additional challenge was incorporating the concierge position as originally proposed by NRH.

This proved difficult due to the fact that it would be nearly impossible to find an individual with both the expertise needed to have oversight over all of the necessary departments, as well as enough positional authority over each department to keep the members of said departments accountable.

Based on our findings our primary recommendations to the City of North Richland Hills is for them to focus on service delivery and efficiency by addressing the problem externally through a concierge position but most importantly internally by restructuring all persons

involved in the Developmental Services Department. Additionally, this report recommends a tiered approach to restructuring all development responsibilities and positions under one chain of command within the Development Services Department. The recommendation is done with the belief that doing so will improve accountability, productivity and efficiency. Furthermore, when focusing on structure we have identified some improvements in the processing of applications.

We describe differences between local and state ordinance requirements and where the reduction of certain requirements could expedite approval periods. Lastly we have included Appendices with relevant charts and samples based on cities with successful practices in hopes these will further assist the City of North Richland Hills in their improvement process.

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The City of North Richland Hills has partnered with The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) to help identify inefficiencies in the Development Services Department’s productivity. The goal is to help eliminate these inefficiencies and provide direct objectives to the City of North Richland Hills. In order to eliminate inefficiencies, it is necessary for the department to completely understand their internal processes through internal mapping. With tangible solutions suggested by UTA students, city staff may utilize these recommendations and suggestions to alleviate bottlenecks in the development process.

Community development is imperative to a city’s growth and sustainability. When development is thriving, it can positively impact a multitude of factors including crime, social equity, jobs, a more talented workforce, and issues negatively affecting a community. Community development can be impacted by the desire to live or establish a business in a particular city.

Depending on the fiscal opportunities within a region, it can give advantages to various communities to attract residential and business opportunities. Some areas can compete fiscally, and others cannot; so, the question is, “How can a development process set itself apart from competition outside of fiscal opportunities?” The answer to that is by distinguishing itself in ways to make the process efficient and customer service driven.

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NRH Customer Service Goals NRH Current Reported Issues:

• Improve efficiency and customer service within their Development Services Department


• Positively set itself apart from other local cities including Keller, Southlake, Colleyville, Hurst, Watauga, and Haltom City 


Efficiency within the approval process Bottlenecks

Outdated system that requires manual entry and modification of the development process

NRH Future Improvement Plans Goals to Be Met Prior to Plans

• NRH plans to implement a new software tying in all departments involved with the

development process 


• Incorporating concierge role


Clean up back-end process Improve efficiency

Keep customer service in mind prior to the implementation of the new software

The Development Services Department acts as the central means of communication for development within the city. The functions of the Development Services Department include four primary services for development including: building inspections and permits, engineering, fire prevention, and planning and zoning. As the main focus pertaining to NRH development, community customer service must be a priority. As part of this review of the Development Services Department, we have met with the City of North Richland Hills, thoroughly reviewed the City’s website, compared local ordinances with state regulations and solicited information with other municipalities within Texas and throughout the United States.

There are two aspects to our development approach and overall city recommendations.

One is conservative and offers the reduction of city ordinances to match the state requirements and reducing some bottlenecks. The other recommendation requires major restructuring of the Developmental Services Department.

Our purpose is to improve North Richland Hills development process, lessening time

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constraints and increasing staff accountability. A chart of the overall notification process will be provided to North Richland Hills that will demonstrate what the Texas Local Government Code requires for development and what the City of North Richland Hills required. In addition, documents from award winning City of Carrollton’s developmental process are included as examples of best practices.

By adopting an approach that prioritizes the developmental services and a central chain of command the issues of accountability measures would be imbedded in the new “one-stop shop”

structure. Current delays are found in the review process due to departmental structures, general overall review timeline for everyone involved in the development review process, as well as stringent local ordinances. Determining who needs to review plans in a specific order with a reduced review window will help identify which areas of the review process may be creating a decelerated process.

The two additional aspects that are discussed include the implementation of a city-wide electronic development program as well as the creation of a concierge role. The city-wide

electronic development program will allow critical departments to talk to each other,

streamlining processes city-wide. However, understanding present inefficiencies in their current process is vital prior to the implementation of this new program and role. The incorporation of a concierge role as proposed by NRH is examined with the goal of ensuring its effectiveness in fulfilling all aspects within its duties. The implementation of an electronic system to bridge the gap in communication within the city will be proposed with regards to the advancements needed to execute this proposal. To do so, we highlight immediate challenges the role may face, and make recommendations to help resolve these challenges.

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Successful completion our capstone required efficient project management in addition to strategic execution of the plans. Throughout the lifecycle of our project, from gathering data, to making recommendations based on the data we strove to maintain a balance between our team’s inner workings and our interactions with the external stakeholders. In our methodology, the first processes described are the team structure including communication systems and the divisions of labor based on expertise. The second component described is the efforts aimed at external parties to research, gather and compare data to make relevant recommendation to the City of North Richland Hills.

The first step in establishing our comprehensive research plan was creating a

communication foundation. Due to our remote locations this relied heavily on technology, group messaging apps such as GroupMe, Blackboard Collaborate, and also Google Docs/Suite. The use of these programs enabled constant communication with all teammates, allowing for easy file sharing and the ability to transmit ideas globally and multiple time zone setting.

Responsibilities were given in accordance to background strengths. Two members have combined decades of experience in municipal governments with access to comparison cities to be used for an improvement model. These two members also had geographic proximity to the project site enabling in person visits and consultations. The remaining four members contributed through editing, research, and project management assistance by helping compile, coordinate, and contribute to the data accessing additional cities, and researching ordinances.

Our second step in creating a solution to the problem involved establishing the scope of the problem. Due to the expanse of North Richland Hills Developmental Department, addressing all of their customer service challenges, given the time frame, would not be

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feasible. Intrinsically, we indexed the main stakeholders in the developmental process and determined which processes were impacted. Since there are different types of permits that must undergo approval, restricting our analysis and suggestions to the higher volume permits allowed us to create effective recommendations.

The City of North Richland Hills provided a flow chart of their current developmental process which was used as a baseline, this flow chart is included as Appendix A: Development Process Flow Chart. In addition, team members met in person and collected information of all major stakeholders/roles. This information allowed better comparison to neighboring

cities. Having established the key stakeholders and the types of permits we were attempting to improve turnaround time for, we adopted a comparison model. This entailed looking at other cities and their approach to developmental processes. In particular, our goal was to incorporate the role of a concierge.

Our project is based qualitative data gathered through in person meetings and phone interviews, email requests for data, online research, comparison of neighboring city websites, comparison of state/local ordinances and research of accountability practices.

One teammate currently employed by the City of Carrollton was able to access and incorporate their award winning developmental process which has a “one-stop shop” concept at its core. This information was pivotal, although the recommendation for implementation would require significant restructuring on North Richland Hills’ part.

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Based on our interviews and comparison of neighboring city models one key problem area is located in the hierarchy of the current development process. The city departments involved in the development process are Building Inspections and Permits, Engineering, Fire

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Prevention, and Planning and Zoning, all of which report to different chains of command in multiple departments (C. Comstock, Personal Interview, February 1, 2019). These multiple chains of commands have no overarching lead which results in lack of accountability and loss of overall purpose/structure. In addition, the developmental process itself is often a secondary duty to the roles of key members of the process. As a result, the review process is subject to being considered as a secondary aspect.

In addition to the structural challenges, city ordinances may be more stringent in their requiring of all plats by city council in comparison to state laws. State laws do not require all plats be approved by city council (LGC, Chapter 212, 1987). Categorizing plats based on which would require council approval and which can be resolved at the staff level could help expedite permit approval wait times and reduce workloads.

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Our recommendation is that NRH focuses on service delivery and efficiency. Taking into consideration the ever-increasing citizen awareness and expectations, budgetary constraints, and regional competition in the Dallas-Fort Worth area improving these two components would be beneficial. To improve service delivery for the NRH Departmental Service a restructuring of all personnel involved in the developmental services department is recommended. In addition, increased efficiency could be obtained through a designated chain of command for the

Developmental Services designed to distribute and consequently alleviate heavy workloads.

Based on information from interviews and data compiled from comparison cities, North Richland Hills has many positions within the development approval process that are a part of different departments with different focuses and that report to individuals outside of

Development Services (B. King, Personal Interview, March 26, 2019). Due to this, only a small

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portion of their workload is pertaining to the development process and priorities may lie elsewhere. As opportunities arise, NRH may consider the option of moving all development responsibilities and positions within one chain of command within the Development Services Department. We propose creating divisions within the department including roles in inspection, permitting, plan review, engineering, arboreal management, planning/design, and transit-oriented development (TOD) incentives that create a true “one-stop shop” (B. King, Personal Interview, March 26, 2019). This allows for alignment of positions within the same chain of command that allows for consistent priority within NRH development services.

Through personal interviews with the Developmental Services Department it seems internal accountability is a common issue in the process (C. Comstock, Personal Interview, February 1, 2019). For various reasons, some departments cannot meet the time deadlines (C.

Comstock, Personal Interview, February 1, 2019). Currently, department directors and city administrators must intervene to get bottlenecks untangled and information flowing to meet timelines expected by customers as well as City Council (P. Hartman, Personal Interview, February 1, 2019). We recognize that this takes away valuable time from regular job

responsibilities of NRH’s leadership positions. Though we have put a bold proposal together for change, we did so with what we believe would serve as the best as a long-term solution taking NRH’s development process to the next level and setting a trend across DFW. The only other known DFW city that has taken this approach is the City of Carrollton who have won a multitude of awards based on the efficiency of their development process and creating a true “one-stop- shop” (B. King, Personal Interview, March 26, 2019).

If NRH chose to bring all positions involved in the development process within one chain of command within the Development Services Department, they should do so strategically

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and create a tiered approach spanning over a two to five-year time frame. This recommendation is described in phases in Appendix B: Proposed Tiered Implementation Chart. The time frame could be established based on the resistance anticipated from current stakeholders. Departments could be identified and categorized as easier or difficult to transition based on workload,

efficiency, and leadership. The departments that are easier to transition could be done at the beginning of the process; whereas departments deemed more difficult could be done in the latter part of the process. The identified easier to transition departments could be put in the tier one shift of the process and a timeline to shift responsibilities should be implemented. Like any organization, some individuals who have been with the organization long-term can sometimes be more resistant to change.

As opportunities arise such as a retirement or another type of turnover occurs, consider changing job descriptions to eliminate their part in the development role process and add that role into the Development Services Department with current staff, or newly created positions.

Take advantage of opportunities with staff turnover to transition the departments that were identified as more difficult to transition.

As current roles change, NRH should consider creating Memorandum’s of Understanding (MOU). An MOU is and agreements between department heads on which department should assume responsibility for what. A sample of an MOU is included as Appendix C: MOU Sample: Memorandum of Understanding One-Stop Phase II Plan

Review/Inspection of Public Improvements Related to Commercial Development.Note that the MOU should include the effective date, scope, definitions, purpose, intent, process, roles and responsibilities within plan review and field operations. Creating an MOU will help with accountability if either side of the agreement oversteps boundaries (City of Carrollton, MOU,

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2004). It is a clear-cut management tool to keep department efficiency at the forefront.

In addition to organizational changes, we have identified a more immediate and easily attainable goal to speed up the development process. Subdivision platting can be a laborious task depending on the complexity of the site and overall scale of a development. During this stage of development, many of the costly infrastructure items are identified by the city and passed on to the developer. In addition to the cost of the project, the time it takes for a development to move toward breaking ground can cost money to the developer. Texas Local Government Code (LGC) Authority Responsible for Approval Generally. (a) states, “The municipal authority responsible for approving plats under this subchapter is the municipal planning commission or, if the

municipality has no planning commission, the governing body of the municipality. The

governing body by ordinance may require the approval of the governing body in addition to that of the municipal planning commission” (LGC, Chapter 212, 1987). Further the LGC Section 212.0065 Delegation of Approval Responsibility. (a) states, “The governing body of a

municipality may delegate to one or more officers or employees of the municipality or of a utility owned or operated by the municipality the ability to approve:

(1) amending plats described by Section 212.016;

(2) minor plats or replats involving four or fewer lots fronting on an existing street and not requiring the creation of any new street or the extension of municipal facilities; or

(3) a replat under Section 212.0145 that does not require the creation of any new street or the extension of municipal facilities” ( LGC, Chapter 212, 1987). According to NRH Hills City Ordinances, Article XIV - Planning and Building Regulations, Section 1 the city has a provision in the ordinance that requires the City Council to review and approve subdivision plats (Charter And Code Of General Ordinances City Of North Richland Hills, Texas,

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1992). This means plats go to the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council for approvals. This is an unnecessary addition of time required for developers. The LGC allows the City Council to designate the Planning and Zoning Commission or city staff authority to approve subdivision plats ( LGC, Chapter 212, 1987). We recommend the city staff, with the support of the application chart we will be providing as support, look at their platting process and make recommendations to the City Council to revise local ordinance to align with Texas Local Government Code (Appendix D: Reference P&Z-BOA Checklist).

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Diluting the responsibility of the Planner’s role and adding the concierge role may take away from their normal job functions and create job dissatisfaction and turnover. NRH may want to consider expanding the concierge idea and developing an independent position that will not only be the primary contact for external customers within the development process but will also connect external customers with community stakeholders such as, Northeast Tarrant Chamber of Commerce, North Richland Hills Chamber of Commerce and other economic development partners within NRH. The position would enhance the overall business navigating aspects for all potential customers and would set NRH apart from regional competition. In Appendix E:

Concierge Role with Customer Centric Focus we have identified the concierge role with a

“customer-centric” focus highlighting the internal process and external benefits of speed, engagement, responsiveness, value, integration, choice, and experience (Lai & Rutter, 2012).

This position could also be a primary collector for business development data to share with potential business and commercial developers, regional stakeholders, and City Council to continue to propel NRH as a premier destination for development. See Appendix F: Concierge Role Description as an example of a concierge position from Red Wing, MN (City of Red Wing,

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MN, 2017).

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NRH Development Services Department identified the need for a ‘concierge’ position to help improve customer service (C. Comstock, Personal Interview, February 1, 2019).

Incorporating a concierge position could help mitigate part of the challenges that arise from multiple chains of commands. Having one individual see the project from start to finish, as well as keeping external customers advised would helping increase customer satisfaction. NRH considered the current position of Planner to also be identified as a concierge (C. Comstock, Personal Interview, February 1, 2019). The goal was having one person providing customer service by communicating with external customers while also resolving bottlenecks behind the scenes. A concierge position would resolve one aspect of the problem through concierge’s communication with external customers. However, an immediate challenge to relying on a concierge’s ability to expedite development would be the lack of authority vested in the position.

Creating this position alone would not speed up the process behind the scenes working with other departments.

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In conclusion, the purpose of this project was to explore the development and permit approval process for the City of North Richland Hills with regard to the review process for development proposals, the platting process and building permits. The goals and objectives of this project were to eliminate these inefficiencies and provide direct objectives of NRH. The City of North Richland Hills desired to improve their efficiency and customer service within their Development Services Department by adding a concierge. Additionally, NRH wanted to

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implement a new software tying in all departments involved with the development process. The functions of the Development Services Department include four primary services for

development including: building inspections and permits, engineering, fire prevention, and planning and zoning. This department serves as the main point of contact for key stakeholders of NRH and therefore, must run as optimally as possible in order to make the process easy and attractive for not only current stakeholders but also to attract future stakeholders.

Our intention was to improve NRH development process, lessening time constraints and increasing staff accountability. This was accomplished by recommending that the City of North Richland Hills focusing better on service delivery by addressing the problem with

customer service both externally with a concierge position but also internally by restructuring all persons involved in the developmental services department. While this recommendation does have it challenges, such as being able to create a comprehensive enough concierge position that it would require to meet the intent of NRH while also fighting resistance to organizational change, it was determined that with the ever-changing landscape of local government that this would be the best approach. In addition to changing the organizational structure, we’ve identified some immediate subdivision ordinance revisions that can be done to assist in speeding up the development process. In the end, the hope for this project is to see the City of North Richland Hills continue to grow and thrive both as a city and as a representation of city government that believes in innovative solutions to further their customer service and efficiency, providing an example throughout Texas and the United States.

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Baartman, M. (2019, March 15). City of Red Wing. Phone interview.

City of Carrollton. (2004, February 16). Memorandum of Understanding One Stop Phase II Plan Review/Inspection of Public Improvements Related to Commercial Development.

City of Carrollton. (2019, March). Development Services Proposed Organizational Chart.

City of North Richland Hills. (n.d) Development Services. Retrieved from:

https://www.nrhtx.com/981/Development-Services

City of North Richland Hills Development Flow Chart. Flow chart of development process.

2019. Personal interview.

City of Red Wing. (2017, November). Community Development Concierge. Retrieved from:

https://www.red-wing.org/765/Community-Development-Concierge

Comstock, C. (2019, February 1). City of North Richland Hills. Personal interview.

Hartman, P. (2019, February 1). City of North Richland Hills. Personal interview.

King, B. (2019, March 26). City of Carrollton. Personal interview.

Lai, A., & Rutter, D. (2012, February). Transforming the citizen experience - One Stop Shop for public services[PDF]. Australia: Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 212. Section 212.006. (2017, August). Retrieved:

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.212.htm#00

Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 212. Section 212.0145 . (2017, August). Retrieved:

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.212.htm#00

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APPENDIX A:NORTH RICHLAND HILLS DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS FLOW CHART APPENDIX B:PROPOSED TIERED IMPLEMENTATION CHART

APPENDIX C:MOUSAMPLE:MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING ONE-STOP PHASE II PLAN REVIEW/INSPECTION OF PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS RELATED TO COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT APPENDIX D:REFERENCE P&Z-BOACHECKLIST

APPENDIX E: CONCIERGE ROLE WITH CUSTOMER CENTRIC FOCUS APPENDIX F:CONCIERGE ROLE DESCRIPTION

19 APPENDIX A:CURRENT NORTH RICHLAND HILLS DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS FLOW CHART

20 APPENDIX B:PROPOSED TIERED IMPLEMENTATION CHART

21 APPENDIX C:MOUSAMPLE:MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING ONE-STOP PHASE II

PLAN REVIEW/INSPECTION OF PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS RELATED TO COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

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25 APPENDIX D:REFERENCE P&Z-BOACHECKLIST

26 APPENDIX E: CONCIERGE ROLE WITH CUSTOMER CENTRIC FOCUS

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29 APPENDIX F:CONCIERGE ROLE DESCRIPTION

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