Abstract. The Need for the Program

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Abstract

Palm Beach County’s ePZB Building portal is the information hub for the construction industry in Palm Beach County. This portal allows contractors, property owners and other stakeholders to view the progress on their building permit applications on any device or browser. The stakeholders can also search through historical permits on any property to see the review history, inspection history and status of the permits in addition to numerous other details. Contractors can schedule/cancel inspections and provide pertinent information to the inspector. They can see the itinerary of the inspector on the day of inspection to get an estimate of the probable time of their inspection. Contractors can also estimate permit fees for the job they are planning and can self-issue no fee sub permits using the portal, thus avoiding a trip to the building division.

https://www.pbcgov.org/ePZB.Admin.WebSPA/#/

The Need for the Program

The redesigned ePZB Building portal offers a more intuitive user experience that improves the organization and presentation of content so that visitors can find the information they seek at-a- glance. New features such as self-issued no fee sub permit saves contractors a trip to building division for more than 20,000 no fee sub permits issued annually. The new portal can be used on any device ranging from mobile phone, tablet, desktop and laptop across all major browsers. The new portal uses latest web technologies like Angular, SPA etc. to enhance customer experience on range of devices.

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Palm Beach County, Florida Page 2 “The Best of Everything”

Program Description

Overview

The re-design was done in close coordination with the Palm Beach County Building division. In addition, several sessions were held with the construction industry to give them the opportunity to provide valuable feedback to the design team. This resulted in the application being well- received by industry.

View progress on a permit application

The public can search by multiple search options to find their permit. Permit details can be viewed by clicking the permit number link. The search can also be used to find all permits on any address, for a contractor, company or other search criterion.

The View Application provides the visitor with a complete picture of a particular permit application. All information sections, except the top, are collapsed by default. This gives the visitor a summary view of the information available on the permit. The visitor can then expand the sections they would like to view detailed information on or use the Expand All feature to see everything. They can print the information or save the search results in excel. There is also a link on the right most side to show the fees due and view the fees details and pay if applicable.

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The Review Summary section shows a graphical view of the status of each agency working on the permit application. It lists the dates an agency worked on the application and the type of processing they did. It also shows which agencies have comments on this application and which have approved the application.

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The Review History section shows the detailed history of all significant activities on the permit application in a chronological listing.

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The All Agency Comments section shows both resolved and unresolved comments on the permit application by every agency reviewing the application.

Schedule or cancel inspections on a permit

Contractors and Owner Builders can schedule/cancel inspections using the portal on any device using their assigned PIN for authentication.

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The public can also view the inspection history on any permit.

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Contractors can view the itinerary of their inspector on the day their inspection is scheduled.

They can see the number of their job site in the itinerary and how many inspections the inspector has completed thus far. The inspector’s phone number is shown in case they need to contact the inspector.

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Self-issue a no fee sub permit

Contractors can self-issue no fee sub permit(s) authorized for any permit. The contractor of the primary permit is informed whenever a no fee sub is issued by any sub-contractor on their permit.

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Fee Estimator

The public can get an estimate of the total permit fees that will be charged for any job by providing details of the job.

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The Cost of the Program

ISS was able to re-design the ePZB Building portal as part of an existing effort to implement Electronic Plan Review for the Building division. As such, there was no additional cost for the enhanced portal.

Results/Success of the Program

Since the new portal was launched in 2019, the number of in-person visits to the permit center has been reduced. The public is able to use the portal on their smartphones with ease. The productivity of permit center staff has increased due to a reduced crowd in the office. Contractors are spending less time standing in line at the permit center.

Worthiness of the Award

The PBC ePZB Building portal is deserving of the NACo award for the following reasons:

 It provides public access to the real time progress of their permit application

 The ability to schedule and cancel inspections and view an inspector’s itinerary and inspection progress.

 The ability to self-issue no fee sub permits without visiting the permit center.

 The ability to search historical permit data on any property in Palm Beach County.