Planning and Permitting Mayoral Transition Committee Report Through the Committee process, Committee members learned from the Planning,Building, and Code Enforcement (PBCE) Director that a new managementframework has been under development for a few months with the plan to bepublicly shared at the Community & Economic Committee meeting on February27, 2023. There is an addendum in this report that highlights that work is beingundertaken. The addendum explains why pieces of the framework were notincluded in the recommendations below. The outcomes, recommendations, andsuccess metrics below are meant to move the needle on items that are eitherpartially underway or on items that need to be advanced.
Outcome and Success Metrics
Outcome #1:San José customers receive timely, responsive,predictable, andreliable planning and permitting services.
Success Metric: Rate of decrease in permit time forthe top 3 mostimportant permit pathways.
Outcome #2: San José is recognized for staff-levelefficiency, is “open for business,”and is competitive with other cities in the Bay Area for attracting developmentdollars.
Success Metric: The rate of increase in constructiondollars invested withinthe City of San José as benchmarked against the top 5 comparable cities inCalifornia.
FY 23-24 Recommendations
Recommendation #1: System pilot a project managerfor the five different types ofprojects for plan check and building permits: large commercial, large residential,small residential, tenant improvements, and affordable residential projects. Someprojects are assigned randomly to a manager and some will go through thecurrent process and are not assigned a project manager. This pilot will test theefficiencies of each approach to identify if we can decrease the time it takes for 1 the average permit or to see if we can decrease the number of rounds required toreceive a permit.
The city would need to consider using other funding sources, such as the GeneralFund, Measure E funds, and construction taxes, that could be used for specificareas of improvement, such as creating new positions for processing affordablehousing applications, adding new positions to the PBCE Administrative Division, orcreating new positions to serve as “project managers” for the entire developmentservices process—from Planning entitlement to Building permit issuance toinspections and occupancy.
Success Metric:City Council consideration by December2023 and roll outthe Project Manager Pilot in 2024 to be funded for at least 2 - 3 years.
Recommendation #2: Increase the quality of San Jose’scommunication to itscustomers so that the communication is high quality and two way. Refine the webportal to share more information about where an applicant's project stands andenhance the ability for customers to stay in contact with the city. Automaticallydisperse satisfaction surveys to PBCE customers after they receive their permits.
Success Metric: Decrease in average response timefrom developmentservices to customers. An increase in customer satisfaction.
Recommendation #3: Temporarily broaden the use ofmethods currently used toaddress the permitting backlog for development review (planning), plan review(building), and other services.
Success Metric: By January 2024: Reduce the developmentreview backlogby at least 20%; Reduce plan review backlog by at least 20%.
Recommendation #4: Conduct a cost recovery analysisfor five permit types toinform a future comprehensive evaluation of the cost recovery model fordevelopment services. Consider the usage of other funding sources, such asMeasure E funds and construction taxes, that could be directed to discrete areasfor improvement (i.e., hiring additional staff for processing affordable housingapplications or other projects).
Success Metric: City Administration analyses completedby June 2023. 2 Recommendation #5: Strengthen the hiring process forDevelopment Servicesstaff, including Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement, Public Works, and Fire.
Success Metric: By June 2024 fill at least 20% ofvacancies and improve staffretention by 20%.
FY 24+ Recommendations
Recommendation #1: Conduct program-level CEQA analysisfor approved urbanvillage plans to shorten the approval processes for new development projects.This approach has been a successful component of the Downtown Strategy 2040and Environmental Impact Report. By investing in CEQA groundwork, we can allowareas of the City to be developed more quickly. Create a revolving fund forrecovering costs of the city paying for CEQA analysis from the developers payinginto it that develop in these urban villages.
Success Metric: Bring to City Council an action planby June of 2023 andapprove CEQA analysis for urban village plans by June 30, 2025.
Recommendation #2: Review the level of scrutiny theCity applies to projectswithin the City of San Jose development partner pipeline. It is the impression ofthis Committee that the City is spending time and effort on scrutinizing non-safetyrelated elements at a level that is inefficient and unnecessary. Eliminating somework scope can free up valuable staff time to focus on higher value projects andensure city planning and permitting process move forward more expeditiously.
Success Metric: Commission an analysis of the top5 most challengingnon-safety related permitting and planning processes that add to delays fordevelopment projects and return to Council by June 30, 2026 with analysis.
Recommendation #3: The City Council may have to makechoices and priorities forthe re-allocation of resources. Some types of projects benefit the City’s budgetthrough the General Fund and some projects are subsidized by the City’s budget.The City Council should receive a report that discusses the City’s responsibility toprovide services to all customers while also understanding the fiscal impacts ofland uses and through the General Fund or through other means. 3 Success Metric: City Council receipt of a report analyzingthe City’sresponsibilities to development services customers and analyzing the fiscalimpact of land uses in the City by December 31, 2023.
Planning and Permitting Committee Addendum
New Initiatives Underway and Coming Soon: Throughoutthe transition committeediscussion with stakeholders and city staff we learned that many of therecommendations that had broad consensus have been in the planning stages andwill be implemented in the next year. Below is a preview of some of thoseinitiatives so that we can measure success as they roll out. ● Customer service rollout of 43 “dashboards” that measure standards andbenchmarks on PBCE departmental goals. A number of these dashboardswill be public on the website to ensure accountability and measureprogress. (broad consensus in each committee meeting to measureprogress publicly)● Reinstatement of the residential “express” service for the building permitprocess to allow for applicants to pay for expedited building permitprocessing.● Reinstate Special Tenant Improvement (STI)/Industrial Tool Installation (ITI)plan review service for building permit process (for office, R&D, andindustrial tool projects)● Implement a process for self-certification for building plan review andinspections to reduce staff workload and create more efficiency for cityprocesses. The City is creating a “Best Prepared Installer” Program tostreamline inspections and “Best Prepared Designer” Program to streamlineplan review.● Adding walk-in capacity for specific Permit Center services. (Related toFY23/24 recommendation #2 to increase customer satisfaction andcommunication) 4 Planning and Permitting Transition Committee Roster / Acknowledgements:
1. Councilmember Dev Davis, Council Co-Chair2. Councilmember Sergio Jimenez, Council Co-Chair3. Ted McMahon, Developer, Community Co-Chair4. Melanie Griswold, Hestia5. June Tran, Crema Cafe6. Rosalynn Hughey City, City of San Jose7. Chris Burton, City of San Jose8. Reyad Katwan, Republic Urban Properties9. Andrea Osgood, Eden Housing10. Paul Ring Urban, Catalyst11. Tony Mirenda, Blach Construction12. Kate Conley, Architects FORA13. Alison Love, General Contractors14. Ephrem Yosef, Walia Ethiopian Cuisine15. Jeff Current, Studio Current16. Chad Nguyen, LPMD Architects17. Daniel Warren, Warren Design18. Mark Knudsen, Kier & Wright19. Terry Pries, Hill Point Development and Construction20. Shelley Doran, Webcor Builders21. Tony Arreola, DAL Properties22. Janikke Klem, Consultant23. Matthew Visick, Reuben, Junius & Rose24. Shawn Milligan, Milligan Land Company25. David Bini, Building Trades Council26. Elizabeth Kamya, IFPTE Local 2127. Dan Mountsier, PINIQN Property Co.28. Aaron Fenton, Boston Properties 5 Mayoral Transition Committees "Glossary"
Goals:Each committee has a mandate that includes thegoalsof the committee. Forexample, the goals of the community safety committee are to (1) increasepedestrian and traffic safety, and (2) reduce street level crime and improve the feltexperience of safety for residents and small businesses. In meetings, we've alsoused the words "pillar", "north star", and "mandate".
Outcomes:The transition committees are going to start by discussing what success looks likefrom a holistic community impact or state of well being perspective. We can thinkof these asoutcomes. To give an example, the CommunitySafety Committee maydecide that one of their outcomes is “San José residents feel safe anytime,anywhere in San José” or “San José residents feel safe walking in theirneighborhood.” Recommendations:The Committees will spend the second and third committee meetings generatingrecommendations. Each Committee will produce 3 - 5recommendations for theupcoming budget cycle, and 3 - 5 recommendations for the longer term (withinthe next two years).
The recommendations will also have a success metric attached but Committeemembers are not expected to define actual specific targets for these successmetrics. Recommendations may or may not be specific to a particular Cityprogram or service. For example, stricter enforcement of speeding in heavilytrafficked intersections or increasing the number of traffic calming solutions maybe specific recommendations from the Community Safety Committee. Eachtransition committee will rank their recommendations in order of which they thinkwill have the biggest impact on their goal and outcome.
Success MetricsOutcomes and recommendations should be measurable via asuccess metricsuchas a community indicator, which is a performance measure that quantifies trendsaffecting outcomes (the well-being of communities). Success metrics are typicallyexpressed as a rate or percentage and can be disaggregated by race and location 6 to identify disparities and and take action to close the disparities. To give anexample, an outcome may have the success metric “the percentage of San Joseresidents who feel safe anytime anywhere in San Jose.” The goal is to identifyboththe outcome and the recommendation success metricsso the City does notbecome overly focussed on measuring a particular program or service that is notultimately improving the higher level outcome. When an outcome is not clear orcannot be readily measured, other program or service level performancemeasures may be used as proxies. For example, a proxy success metric forpedestrian and traffic safety might be a reduction in the crash injury rate.Committee members are not expected to define actual specific targets for theseoutcome metrics.
Product:Theproductof the transition committees will be 15- 25 recommendations for theupcoming budget cycle, and 15 - 25 recommendations for the longer term.
The budget cycle recommendations will feed directly into budget prioritizationover the course of two council meetings. In the first council meeting,Councilmembers will provide a publicreadoutof thecommitteerecommendations. In the second council meeting, Councilmembers will rankoutcomes across all the transition committees. The Administration will use theranked strategies from Council and the product from the transition committees asinputs in the normal budget process. 7