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Recap of Findings <br />1. The average cycle time for building permits for residential and commercial leaving in the highs <br />and lows was 1.5 days. It is our opinion as TMAC from performing similar projects at other cities <br />that 1.5 days would place the permitting cycle time in the upper percentile of performance. <br />2. If permits are required for projects greater than 5,000 square feet the cycle time becomes quite <br />long at 30 days as compared to the 1.5 day average. <br />3. There are opportunities to improve the cycle time zoning permits or changes. <br />4. Permits requests are up significantly in 2011 from prior history. <br />5. The permitting process is very manual. <br />6. Both Shawn and Jeanna are very open to change and making improvements in the process. In <br />addition, they both have a positive attitude to delivering the best service for their customers <br />and have made improvements to achieve improved service. <br />Recommendations <br />1. I do not recommend any changes to the permitting process for Residential (new and remodel) <br />and commercial (new and remodel) for buildings less than 5,000 square feet. This <br />recommendation is based on the data verified fact that 1.5 days is excellent cycle time and is <br />very competitive with other cities in the State of Texas. <br />2. I do recommend that Lean initiatives or a strategy be deployed to reduce the 30 day cycle time <br />for building permits over 5,000 square feet. This becomes particularly important to attracting <br />large commercial industry to Paris. It is important to be quick and easy to do business with <br />potential new industry. <br />3. I recommend that the zoning approval process be reviewed and improvements made. The <br />zoning process is typically a 6-7 week process. I was told that the zoning requirements are only <br />reviewed on the 4th Monday of each month. Depending on the purpose of the zoning and <br />industry involved more frequent reviews may be necessary. <br />4. I definitely recommend that a process map be developed of the permitting and zoning process. <br />This would allow the customers to have process steps to follow rather than staff at the <br />permitting office manually walking them through the process. Most importantly this is a natural <br />15t step to moving in the direction of electronic permitting which is ultimately what I feel the <br />permitting process should offer. The process map can be done by TMAC in about 5 days. This <br />would include being on site to develop the map with the staff and providing an electronic <br />version of the map. <br />5. While there are opportunities within the process, there are many good things happening that <br />should be communicated to the community and potential new industry. I recommend <br />community awareness education of the positive things. The process map would be an excellent <br />tool to use for this communication. <br />4 <br />