Good afternoon. I'm Kevin Wilk, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek. Welcome to the
Tuesday, September 15th, 2026 special meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.
Under California law, public comment at special meetings are limited as subjects
on the agenda only. Therefore public comments will be received during the
item. The study session item is update on development services, team process,
improvement projects, and outcomes. And I invite administrative analysts Kathy
Arana and Senior Planner Ben Schuster forward to provide the presentation.
Good afternoon Mayor Wilk and members of the council. Thank you all for being here
today. We appreciate the opportunity to share an update on our process
improvement efforts. I'm Kathy Arana and I'm joined by my colleague Ben Schuster
and we're here on behalf of the entire Development Services team and we will be
guiding you, sorry, today through the key insights and outcomes of this improvement
work. Over the past several months, the team has been focused on identifying
key opportunities, driving targeted improvements, and building a more
efficient process. Today we're excited to highlight the progress we've made, as
well as the progress we're starting to see already. Sorry, as well as the impact
we're starting to see already. Throughout the presentation, we'll be joined by
select members from the development services team who will be sharing more
about some key insights that are underway. So I'll be giving a brief
introduction of our presenters today. We have Casava Washington from the Economic
Development Division and from our Engineering Division we have Ryan Cook.
From our Building Division we have Jessica Azevedo and Samantha Sampson and
from our Planning Division we have Allison Rustic, Jessica Gonzalez and
Gerardo Victoria. With that we're excited to share with you today a story about
about our lean green development team.
To start, let's take a moment to recognize
and thank everyone who participated
in our process improvement efforts.
This work is not easy, improvement takes time,
and a willingness to really look at how we operate.
Everyone on the team has committed a great deal of time
to these efforts, and we know this work is not yet finished.
What is especially meaningful about this effort
is that it brought together staff
from three different city departments,
the city manager's office, the public works department,
and Community Development Department,
as well as multiple divisions,
building, economic development, engineering, planning,
and traffic engineering.
While each group has its primary areas of responsibility,
we were able to come together
as one development services team,
also known as a DST, to improve our permitting process.
The core improvement team consists of 33 city staff,
including our three executive team sponsors,
along with our consultants, partners in public innovation,
also known as PPI, and a number of customers
who opted to participate in the process.
In addition to this core group, many other members of the DST
were also involved with the process improvement efforts.
Many of them are here in the audience today.
And so what will we discover today?
As we move through today's presentation,
we want you to come away with a clear understanding of why
we needed to change what we learned
and where we're going next.
We'll start with what prompted us
to take a closer look at the way we do things.
From there, we'll share what we heard directly
from our customers because their experiences helped shape
where we focused our efforts.
You'll then see how we built a new culture around lean
and turn customer feedback into action
with the process improvement work.
So by the end of today,
we hope you'll not only understand what changed,
but also understand why it changed,
how we got there and the difference it's making
for our customers already.
And now we're gonna hear from Ben
about why change is needed.
Thanks Kathy.
Let's start to unpack why change is needed.
So we as a city, we process many different types
and sizes of development applications every year.
And historically, we've faced some challenges
in consistently processing those applications
due to unclear procedures, poor communication,
limited visibility into the approval process,
as well as some other challenges.
And these issues have been exacerbated due to a reliance
on informal training, a lack of undocumented processes,
and extensive staff turnover since the COVID-19 pandemic.
And because our goal as a development services team
is to deliver consistent and exceptional customer service
throughout the entire permitting process,
we needed to reevaluate our business practices
and redesign them to meet our current customer needs.
So I think it's important to note
that the work we're talking about today
is a long time in the making.
And the city started permit process improvement efforts
about 10 years ago with the Blueprint for Success version
1 and version 2.
And those efforts really laid the foundation
for today's lean work.
And while those initiatives lost momentum
because of the COVID-19 pandemic,
that same pandemic also created an opportunity for us
to rapidly develop digital service offerings
in response to some immediate customer needs.
And then coming out of the pandemic in 2023,
the city picked back up its process improvement initiatives
with the desire to be nimble and responsive
in a post-COVID world.
And so that effort culminated in our permit counter refresh
in the fall of 2025, excuse me,
as well as the start of the lean work
that we're sharing today.
So to better understand what those customer needs are
in this post-COVID world, we needed to talk to them.
And so we did that through a,
what we called a voice of the customer session
that was facilitated by our consultants, PPI.
And you can see on your screen here,
some of the feedback that we got from our customers
from that session.
And it was a mix of positive and not so positive.
But all of it, I think, was really powerful for us
as a development services team to hear.
And I think you can kind of see on your screen
the key theme that we heard coming out of that session
was a lot of fear and frustration
around our current process.
And so I think the work that we're undertaking right now
is really about how can we move away from a process
that our customers fear into one that's
going to allow us as a city to meet its potential
as the epicenter of the East Bay.
So how did we actually bring about change?
I think it's really important to note
that there's something fundamentally different
about this improvement work.
And that's been the primary emphasis
on creating long-term culture change,
rather than just generating a one-time list of improvement
efforts.
And so to bring about this culture change,
we did a couple of things.
So first, we went through a series of workshops and trainings
to learn a common language around lean business concepts.
And we're going to talk about that in a few minutes.
And we learned lean principles such as root cause analysis
or process mapping.
We then started gathering as an entire DST every Tuesday
morning, and we still do this, for 15 minutes.
And we just do a check-in on all active development projects
citywide.
And this has helped create kind of a baseline
of understanding and situational awareness
for the whole team when it comes to developments.
And then those lean concepts that we learned,
we kind of started practicing them right away
through a series of quick wins.
And these are kind of small bite-sized improvement efforts.
And then every week we celebrate those.
And I think all of that work has led us most importantly
to thinking about ourselves as not just the planning division
or the public works department, but instead we
are thinking about ourselves as a development services team.
And that's really awesome to be part of that.
OK, so we've said lean now a couple times.
Like to take an opportunity to briefly explain what lean is.
So in a nutshell, lean is just a way of thinking.
And it values continuous process improvement
that seeks to identify the root cause of an issue
and then address that.
So since today we're talking about the city's permitting
process, we might think of that in the following way.
So first defining the problem, the city's permitting process
today does not align with current customer
needs or expectations.
We then quantify the problem.
So that might be things like, how long
is it taking for customers to get their permits?
or how often is a customer confused about what
the next step in the process is.
We then try and understand what is the root cause
of their frustration.
Is it lack of insight into the process?
Is it lack of handoff between steps in the process?
Is it something else?
And then finally, we address whatever those frustrations are
by providing clarity, transparency, and expediency
throughout the entire process.
And then we evaluate the impact of any changes we make.
And then we continuously assess as a regular course of business.
So now Kathy is going to come back up and
introduce some of the changes that we're making.
Thank you, Ben, for providing that background and giving us an overview of Lean.
So what are we changing?
Our improvement work focused on three main areas, increasing clarity,
enhancing communication, and improving efficiency throughout the permitting process.
So work centered around these three thematic areas
with the goal of achieving the following outcomes,
clarifying permit requirements,
assisting our customers early and often,
building consistency across the DST,
making relevant information easy to find
and documenting our processes.
So we're gonna hear from various representatives
from the process improvement team
to talk about some of the key improvements
that are underway within each of these three areas.
And so for clarity, what are we changing
to improve and enhance clarity.
Allison will come up and share with us
some of the customer resources
the customer education team is developing.
Thank you, Kathy.
I'm Allison Rustic, Associate Planner.
Early on, we considered the customer's experience
and we realized one way that we could help them
to better understand our complex processes
would be to document them.
We made a goal to create clear, informative,
and visual tools that would help customers
feel more informed and better prepared to make their projects a reality.
One educational tool that we developed is the customer journey map which visualizes
the entire DST process.
We know that no two projects are exactly the same, but the customer journey map is intended
to serve as a high-level guide throughout the life of a typical project from start to
finish.
Although 12 steps may seem like a lot, this graphic illustrates the complexity of the
development process to help customers see the bigger picture of how to get from an initial
concept through permitting, construction, inspections, and project completion.
It can be referenced at any stage of the process to help customers understand where they are,
what milestones lie ahead, and how to keep their project moving forward.
The four tracks on the lower half of the sheet, as you can see, indicate how different parts
of the process can overlap with each other and which divisions take the lead at different
times.
To build upon the customer journey map, we also have four additional reference sheets
that are customized to each division.
The handouts are designed intentionally to coordinate with the customer journey map.
Each one is structured with the same components but contains information unique to each division's
process. Here's an example of the planning track information sheet. At the top of the
worksheet, you can see there's a timeline that highlights the steps within that division.
Below is a summary of the typical steps to obtaining an approval. And then there are
quick facts to the left which indicate purpose, lead department, outcomes, et cetera. We also
have unique tips that make the process flow smoothly for the customer, and we have potential
next steps, as well as contact information and resources at the bottom.
Another way we're seeking to improve clarity is through redesigning the comment letter.
Planning, engineering, and building permits all include an application review cycle, during
which the applicant will receive written feedback on their proposed project from a
variety of DST partners and external agencies. Our new template attempts to improve the reader's
experience by making information more easily accessible. Here you can see an example of
a current building comment letter. In the customer experience interviews as well as
in our day-to-day experiences as staff, customers consistently cite that comment letters are
a pain point in the development process.
Feedback has highlighted that comment letters can be difficult to navigate, next steps for
applicants are unclear, and the reviewer's comments can even be redundant or conflict
with each other.
To address these concerns, we're building a template that incorporates a clean, modern
design that clarifies the staff contact information and which comments need actions to move forward.
It prioritizes the customer's overall experience of reading the letter.
This slide shows an example of a redesigned planning application status letter.
It summarizes the project or application that's been submitted as well as the status of incomplete
or complete and the comments that have been provided by staff.
Attached to the cover letter are the review comments.
This pilot design will organize comments by area of interest listed on the left part of
the slide rather than the traditional format of listing them by division.
A benefit to this organization is that comments from different divisions on a similar topic
may be clustered together.
Additionally, each comment is displayed in a card or a block to distinguish them from
each other.
A closer look at the design of the comment block shows the intentionality.
Each one has color-coded tags along the top.
They indicate the comment ID number, the division, the round of review, and the action status.
A comment topic heading identifies the main idea of the comment, and below that, the comment
itself, there's a description of why the comment is important and the suggested advice
for how to move forward.
There is also space to link reference materials as well as a direct contact person for that
a direct contact to the person that provided that comment.
The goal of this design is to make it easy to locate a comment, reduce questions, and
speed up the response time on the applicant side to ultimately make the process review
smoother and more efficient.
Next Ryan will present another initiative addressing clarity.
evening council Ryan cook senior civil engineer so for this one we're gonna
discuss a little bit in terms of how we're gonna look to clarify
communication associated with one example being our building plan review
turnaround times this is a new screen an example of our existing policy bulletin
that was created in 2009 that outlines what the turnaround time is for if you
submit for a building permit.
This, obviously, it's a lot of text through here,
which makes it difficult to follow,
and a large table with a whole bunch of numbers, which really
outlines, has a lot of information
about different departments and how long they're
going to take to review.
We've highlighted just the blue column there,
which is really the main information
that an applicant is seeking, which
is what's that maximum amount of time
that the city is going to review.
But without highlighting that and everything,
it's very difficult to follow.
So what we're looking to do is this is an updated brochure that we'll have out for that,
which really improves the design and clarity for the expectations.
We have one for both residential and commercial.
The first column on the left is for the first submittal when you submit and what that expected
turnaround time is.
simplified it into weeks just to give an easier concept and also and then any subsequent reviews
will be on the column on the right.
And so this is something that we're looking to implement across multiple types of bulletins
that we have and information that we can proceed following a similar type of bulletin.
So next up is Casava to talk about external agencies.
Thank you, Ryan. I'm Cassava Washington, Economic Development Specialist. So one of the challenges
we identified with our development projects is that external agencies often control pieces
of the permitting process, whether that's fire, electric, sewer, any of our utility
agencies, regulatory agencies. So for us, this started as a quick win to create an internal
comprehensive database that had all of our external agency contacts. So staff knew who
to call when they needed answers. And as we worked through this, we realized if it was
difficult for staff, it may also be challenging for the customer. So we created the external
agency map. And this pairs beautifully with our development services customer journey
map and just enhancing clarity through the permitting process.
The external agency map clearly identifies the external agency to contact the role they
play through the permitting process as well as where customers can go to find additional
information.
So this simple tool clarified the process for the customer and also makes it easier
for staff to navigate through the process.
So with that, we're going to highlight a few projects
that are underway to enhance communication.
Next up is Jessica and Jess.
Hi, good afternoon.
I am Jessica Azevedo, Permit Center Supervisor for CDD.
And I'm Jessica Gonzalez, Senior Planner,
and we will be presenting new services to expand, sorry,
engagement opportunities to better meet customer needs.
And so, in an effort to improve our customer communication,
our team has created the framework
for updated enhanced services,
which we are calling the Development Consultation Services.
The new services will help us to provide opportunities
for our customers to engage with us
throughout all stages of their project.
And so, how did we develop these services?
We met with developers throughout the city of Wanna Creek
and we asked them what challenges they experience,
what they need from us,
and what would make the development process more streamlined
and predictable for them.
And so what we heard is that every project
is different and unique.
Early project review such as our existing preliminary review
team application or PRT provides helpful feedback
and guidance and that customers appreciate being able
to easily meet with city staff at all stages of their project to assist with the permitting
process. And so with that feedback in mind, we created the development consultation services
to provide early project review, clearer guidance, and flexible access to city expertise. And
so here's an example of our current preliminary review team application, or PRT, which we
We are preserving as a service but we're expanding to include an optional customer meeting.
And so we recognize that the PRT is not a one size fits all.
So we've also increased our options by adding two additional services.
And so now I'll hand it off to Jess and she'll get into those.
Thank you.
Thank you, Jessica.
Here is an overview of our development consultation services.
We have option A, concept consultation, option B, preliminary review, and option C, ongoing
consultation sessions.
By offering these three consultation levels, we can better support projects based on their
individual needs while balancing customer service with appropriate cost recovery.
Let's dive into the details.
A, our concept consultation is a 30-minute no-cost meeting,
recommended for customers exploring an idea.
Staff from multiple city departments meet with a customer
to verbally go over zoning requirements,
potential permits, and next steps.
Option B, preliminary review.
This is similar to our existing PRT process,
recommended for customers with conceptual plans,
seeking details seeking detailed written feedback. Multiple city departments meet to review the
proposal and provide written comments. We've added an option to go over the comments with
the customers. This service is a one-time flat fee. An option C ongoing consultation session
provides flexible meetings at the customer's request to address project needs. Recommended
for customers needing continued support and coordination with city staff throughout unique
situations or challenges during permit review. This service will be deposit based and billed
hourly. Here's a sneak peek at our new draft booking page for service option A, concept
consultation. A customer would go onto the website, add a few details, select an available
concept consultation date, and they would meet with city staff from planning, engineering,
and building department.
It would be that simple.
Our team is excited and proud to bring these customer-focused services to the city of Walnut
Creek in the new year.
We didn't just start with a program, we started with a conversation.
We listened, we learned, and we tailored.
And now we're ready to deliver.
our approach to development consultation services and ultimately to better
customer service. Next we'll hear from Samantha Sampson to talk about
additional efforts we're undertaking to enhance communication. Good evening
everyone my name is Samantha Sampson, permit technician one. Another effort to
enhance communication is to assess public facing materials on our city
website. So far we have identified and removed over 60 documents that were no
longer needed and over 100 documents to be updated. documents were removed if
the information was no longer relevant or if the information was already
available elsewhere on our website. updated forms will be rewritten with the
customer focused approach similar to some of the educational material we just
saw. in addition we are working to restructure the design layout and
content of the DST website. as an example this is our existing permits webpage
which highlights some common issues found throughout our website. Pages have
a mix of information, they don't guide the customers to helpful content, and are
not service oriented. To overcome these challenges we're working on a new
structure for our DST webpage content. Some key changes include a new
DST hub page to highlight the most requested services and most applied for
permits shown on the left, and on the right is an example of an individual
service page which provides clear guidance that leads customers through that particular
project or service journey.
Another exciting effort that's underway are changes to our permit application portal,
Acela.
Here are some snippets from our current permit application portal.
It suffers from outdated design, is difficult to navigate, and does not provide clear information
on the exact permit type a customer may need.
We are addressing these challenges in two phases.
First, we are redesigning the look and the feel of the portal to optimize the customer
experience, shown on the left.
And second, we are configuring a permit wizard which guides customers through the application
process by asking a series of questions intended to lead the customers to the correct application
and start it for them, shown on the right.
And now we will hear from Gerardo to talk about some efforts to improve efficiency.
Hi.
I'm Gerardo Victoria, Associate Planner, Community Development.
So what are we doing to improve efficiency?
One major effort we'd like to highlight is documenting standard operating procedures.
By mapping our processes, we were able to identify areas where SOPs were missing or
needed to be updated.
Each team prioritized the process and updated an SOP that created a consistent path for
both city staff and customers.
So far we've completed the following SOPs you see on the screen there.
As an example, planning design review for planners to process design review applications.
Planner review of building permits are for planners to review building permit applications.
Commercial express applications are for plan check engineers to expedite qualifying commercial
building permits.
And engineering review of building permits are for engineers to review building permit
applications.
The goal is to ensure that everyone is following the same process with a clear and consistent
steps from start to finish.
Finally, efforts are underway to track and report on various metrics that relate to our
permitting process to enhance efficiency.
Here's an example of a dashboard that tracks metrics for building permits.
We are currently working on identifying metrics to capture and build dashboards for planning
engineering permits. This allows us to track our ongoing successes and identify
new areas of improvement. And now back to Ben. Thank you Gerardo. So that's a lot
as you can probably tell. I'm wondering why everyone's looking so tired the last
couple weeks. But what we covered today is really just a part of everything
that's underway. As you can see on your screen, we have over 50 major initiatives
that are currently underway to improve various parts of our process and those
quick wins I mentioned earlier as a team we've completed over 60 of those to date
and while those are small by nature they've collectively had a large
positive outcome on our process. So we've covered the work but what does
this all mean for our customer? So it means a couple things and we're going to
share share a couple highlights here. So first, if we look at some building
permit data on your screen, this is for commercial building permit data, and we
looked at 2024 to 2025 that's in the orange and the green is 2026 to date. And
on the left hand side is average customer response time during the
permit review phase, and you can see that even though there's still a lot of work that
is still ongoing, that we've already seen a pretty dramatic decrease in customer response
time.
That's about two weeks.
And then on the right-hand side, that city processing times, a more modest decrease so
far, but we do anticipate that as we roll out all of the permit improvement efforts
that we would see a continued decrease in processing times.
And so, those decreases in processing times are kind of complemented by what we're hearing
anecdotally.
So, on your screen here is a snippet from a survey that we send out to every single
customer that comes to our permit counter.
And so, for 2026, you can see that 90 percent of survey respondents strongly agreed with
the sentiment that they were satisfied with the outcome of their visit to the
counter. And so now Cathy is going to come up and share some more positive
feedback we've been hearing and then bring us home. So if we if we recall the
feedback we received at the beginning of this work customers feared the process
noting that it was holding the city back from reading reaching its full potential
and now we've started to hear the following from signature development
Overall, we've been very pleased with our experience working with Walnut Creek to date,
and from Rolla Gabin, partnerships like this are what make Walnut Creek such a special
place we truly value the relationship.
Your commitment to honoring our timeline has been instrumental in ensuring that we are
on track for our groundbreaking from Lindsay Wildlife Experience, and from Jeff Dudum,
the collaborative approach I am now seeing across the city makes me even more optimistic
about Walnut Creek's future.
So customers are now expressing excitement and optimism about the process, and in your
pockets, you'll find complete letters from our customers.
So as we reflect on our journey today, what have we learned?
We learned that change was needed due to shifts in customers' needs.
We heard our customers were frustrated and afraid of the process.
We embraced a new culture that leans into change and collaboration.
We made improvements to enhance clarity, communication, and efficiency.
Our customers are now experiencing a better and more efficient process.
And our customers are pleased and excited about their future here in Walnut Creek.
So what's next?
All of this improvement work will continue as we aim to roll out our revamped permit
process early in the new year.
The changes we're undertaking are reflective of the cultural shift that has spread across
development services and as a team we're dedicated to finding creative solutions, celebrating
change and embracing our customers' needs which allows us to build better together.
And with that, we're available for any questions.
Great.
Thank you.
Comprehensive presentation and lots of detail.
So let's – so we'll open up questions.
Who would like to start here?
Great.
Thanks, Mayor Portem.
Thanks very much for the presentation
and for all your collective hard work over many months.
This is really exciting to see
kind of the fruits of this labor.
I kind of have a scatter shot of questions
that your presentation kind of evoked
and based on maybe some recent past history
with clients in other jurisdictions.
From my own personal experience,
where in the process can a homeowner find out,
do I need a permit for this?
Is that easy for the average homeowner to find
on our website or are we taking steps
to make it easy for them?
Thank you for that question.
Currently, it is available on our website
and also the customers are able to call our front counter
or come in.
We are making improvements to our city website
to make that easier to find and just like a easier flow
to navigate their way around our city website.
I think that would be helpful.
I'll save that for comments, I guess.
I'll stick with questions now.
On the comment letter process,
was there any discussion or consideration given,
or was it identified as an issue?
Some of these questions are not,
or comments are not necessarily objective in nature,
or could be lead to issues down the road
and discussions before an occupancy permit.
I'll give you an example from a recent project,
which the comment was essentially repair damage
caused to the roads by the project.
No one really had done any PCI evaluations of the roads
before construction and after construction.
So are we trying to avoid kind of that situation
or how would you kind of rectify avoiding comments like that?
that's a great question. I think, you know, there are some comments by their
nature that are very hard to be 100% objective and I think that's a good
example of one. I think really the intent and the focus on the comment
letter was to provide more clarity early on as to what the expectations are to
provide more of a communication pipeline to whoever's
making that comment, so that discussion can be had.
Because I do think it varies on a project by project basis
to your point.
And so it was more around that than trying
to achieve full objective comments for everything.
Because I just don't think that's possible, unfortunately,
in the permitting process.
It's complicated.
That makes sense. And I think that's honest. And I think it can be you know,
I don't know to what extent it's been a pinch point in the city,
but I think it has been, it can be a pinch point obviously in getting projects
over the finish line to occupancy. Um,
another one would be the utility contact. I think Ryan had a comment.
Yeah.
I can give a little bit more input as it relates to the example that you, uh,
provided in terms of some of those more generic type and not specific comments.
Throughout the example that you saw was for our planning application status, those are
definitely going to be much more objective in nature.
Those more subjective and or other ones are oftentimes more of conditions of approval
that could put in their contractor or developer shall repair any damaged roadway that's caused
or something like that.
And then when they get into permitting it's usually
We make sure that there's specific notes and stuff and will be very clear in terms of what that looks like on plan sheets
And then we usually also have various like general information
Guidance stuff that talks about some of those more general ones and then they get addressed as we go into construction
through pre-construction meetings and stuff and what those expectations are and
how they get addressed so that way it's more clear to
The both the developer and contractor as they're they're building and so what what that expectation is before final
That's helpful. So kind of two different parts in the process and you try to
Provide as much clarity as possible in the comments on the permit. Yeah. Yeah. Okay
on the external agency contacts that seems extremely valuable and
so it's outward facing to for the applicant if they're
running into an issue with AT&T or PG&E.
They know who the utility is.
It's often like trying to call Microsoft,
getting somebody to answer the phone.
Thank you.
The database itself that is just for internal,
that's an internal resource, the external map
will be available for the public.
And we do have some contact info there,
but it's not specific to the person, but more general.
If that would be needed, I think we'd be able to provide that, but just our database itself
is internal.
Any further, Ryan?
Who should I call, PGNE?
Yeah, utilities are a little bit more up my alley on a lot of this stuff, what we deal
with.
The utility agencies are always a challenge, considering we don't have any sort of authority
over them, and the fact that some of them, particularly say PGNE, there's a bit of a
revolving door in terms of personnel that works there.
So we work diligently to try and keep our internal contacts updated for, especially
for emergencies and other things.
The information that we provide out to applicants and stuff is going to be a much more general,
to either a general line or email or just a website in some cases because there is no
one specific contact at those for them so, but we continually work with it and we try
to help them and guide them.
We reach out on behalf of the applicant sometimes to some of our contacts internally if they're
coming up and struggling and getting stuff done because we can kind of
usually know who to get a hold of and get some better answers but not
necessarily that we have them contact some of those more specific people that's
helpful yeah two more I think on the preliminary application or the
preliminary review team what's the cost in general turnaround time for that
process. It's time and material basis I imagine but on average. Yes so the the
three new concepts the option A is going to be of zero cost one-time thing. The
option B which is the kind of mirrors the most closely to our existing PRT
process that is I believe a $1,000 flat fee for commercial and multifamily
projects and then that is still free for single-family development. And then the
option C which is the ongoing consultation services that's an initial
deposit of I believe $3,500 and then that's billed at the hourly rate of the
different staff involved. And is it about a 30-day time frame the meeting is held
And then you get a written letter back from the city with everyone's comments for option B
Yeah, I believe our current turnaround time for those is about a week one to two weeks. Yeah about a week after
Yeah
Okay, and then just finally on the
performance indicators
I know that that's still being developed and you gave the one example of the city processing time
And it's ticked down a little bit it so I assume that's going to be one of the ones we'll be watching
What are some of the other general ones that you're thinking about?
That is definitely one that we'll be watching
What were the other ones that were planned that we're wanting to capture?
Yeah, so the it's a couple different things, you know one is
what we shared today was
processing time specific to building
Permits and so as was mentioned in the presentation, we're looking to build out similar processing time metrics for other types of permits of planning entitlements
As well as engineering so site development
permits
And then there's other things related to some of the work. So that would would be a good example
So something we might think about with the customer journey maps, for example, how do we know that those are actually?
Landing with our customers
And so something we kind of learned from our consultants PPI is to think creatively about metrics and so something might be like
Are we seeing a reduction in the number of phone calls to our general permit like that are looking for kind of general guidance
Through the permit process because we would anticipate that based on hey, we've provided all these
Educational materials around the process right so it's that would be a example
Excellent, thank you very much
Tells me we're darling. Thank you and great job guys. I know this is really hard stuff
It seems so like why can't you just make it easy, but it's never that simple
Starting with the meeting options that people are having do we have a
Concept of how many people are going for a option a B or C. Do we know what the distribution is?
With option a we've heard that we've had we've heard customers express that they would want something like that
We don't yet have metrics on how many will avail of that option and we'll look at that closely too as we roll out
the new program and
Then with the option a it strikes me as that's a great place to capture where your education materials
Might be lacking a detail. Have you guys thought about how you could include a
quick debrief after the meeting, you know, there are some questions that customers come up with over and over and if you could find a way to
capture those and fix them.
So we, this is a really
good question to kind of remind everyone of, you know, lean, right? Lean, one of the most important parts of this work
I think is the culture change and then with the lean framework of being a continuous process of improvement and so to your point, right?
I mean, that is literally just baked into this idea of what lean is.
And so I would say yes, as we've kind of changed the culture of our development
services team, that this would be one of the natural outcomes of what would happen.
Hey, this questioning keeps coming up over and
over again as people are exploring just a business concept.
And so that's a great opportunity for us to provide some targeted materials.
Clarity.
Yeah, exactly, yeah.
And then one of the other things in my experience with permit stream lighting is related to large water projects
Which is probably a very different animal than adding garages
But one of the things that frequently held projects up or
Disputes between the applicant would say yes, it is adequate the staff would say no
It's not and the staff applicant would say yes
staff would say no it's not and they would fight about that for a while and
we ultimately ended up coming up with a dispute resolution process these are
big obviously big projects have you thought about do you have those kind of
conflicts on projects on a regular basis the yes it is no it's not type things I
think with the redesign comment letter that we have that will roll out you know
in the new year we're wanting to capture those and so if there's something that
that seems objective, you know, we'll state our source, you know,
whether it's a unique order or some ordinance so that we have something to point them to,
to back up, you know, that decision or that justification behind what direction they're
being given, and if it's something in the gray area and open for, you know,
a decision to be made later on, that communication line will be open
so that we can come to that together.
Okay, so there's a way for them if they're not happy with the answer they're getting
to understand why that answer is there.
To provide, yes.
And then I really like the external agency map.
I love the little grease trap underneath the restaurant.
One of the things with external agencies might be useful is, for example, we all know PG&E
connections are difficult to get and a big source of delay. Do we have we come
up with like tips on how to deal with the agencies or nice things to know? You
bring up a very valid point there. Yeah, so this is one of the things that we
Consistently are trying to communicate very early and we make it a very strong point even as as early as our
What is now our development consultations?
One of the first comments we always have is reach out to central sand reach out to PG&E start those conversations
Right now and we and we let them know especially based upon the project type that they have
What what we expect to see in terms of what they need are they going to need new transformers or is it?
The new grease trap or and stuff like that to let them give them a sense of what those costs are and what those time
Frames are especially with some of the long lead lead times when if we expect PG need to take two years. Well
very quickly
FYI
Make sure that you're accounting for this and stuff. And so we really try to communicate early and often with that
We repeat it throughout the entire process, you know, yeah
Just to build on that, the new customer journey maps
actually call out, please contact the utility companies
early because of this exact reason.
So we are, to Brian's point, making sure
in multiple different avenues that customers
are aware of this requirement.
So yeah.
That sounds good.
No, I like what you guys are doing.
It's really great.
And I appreciate the enthusiasm too.
So thank you.
All right, Council Member Silva, you're ready.
So first and foremost, thank you very much for this work.
It's exciting.
You can tell you're excited about it,
and I think the customers are giving you good feedback
that they're excited about it as well.
One, as a communications person by training,
one of the challenges is to ensure clarity
and you've focused on that.
Consistency, lack of redundancy,
and basically conflicting comments.
I like what you're doing, which is rather than doing it,
sorting it by who made the comment,
sorting it by what the comment subject matter is.
But generally, somebody needs to check
before the report goes back to the customer
that everything is clear,
consistent, lack of redundancy.
How are you doing that?
Or maybe you're not.
I hope not.
So with these redesigned comment letters,
There is an owner, you know, and it falls in the in the planning division
And so they will review all the comments before it does go out to the back out to the customers
Though at the different stages it will hit the divot the different divisions
The last person that it hits before it goes to the customer will be in the planning division and does that
Letter say if you don't understand something call it leaves definitely does. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any areas. Yes
Councilmember Davinney.
Thank you for the presentation, it was excellent.
My question and what fascinates me is that 15-minute meeting that you have every Tuesday.
Are you going through all of the projects that are active and sort of like everyone's
checking in on those projects or to just cover a few and the reason I ask is sometimes the
process stalls and the applicant, I'm thinking of some feedback I got recently, the applicant
and thought it was waiting for the city
but the city was waiting for the applicant
and months went by and meanwhile the business is,
hey what's going on with this?
And so no one really knew where it was.
Do you have a mechanism to see when something has stalled
so you can check in with them
and make sure they're staying on track?
Yeah, it's a really good question.
So I think there's a couple pieces to your question.
So first is it is not all projects.
We very purposely struck a balance
between amount of time we're spending
with the entire development services team
and the types of projects.
So there's a internal list of criteria
for which projects we talk about,
but generally these are larger commercial projects.
So think of like restaurants in the downtown
or a new auto dealer, for example.
These are the types of projects.
And then we have, we've developed a system over time
of different ways to flag things.
So we have, for example, pins that literally go on this board.
And we have a chili pepper to indicate this is a hot topic.
We've gotten a lot of custom or rather public inquiry.
And then we also have a little clock pin
that indicates, hey, this is something, to your point,
that we haven't heard from the applicant in a while.
So someone needs to follow up.
And one of the, I think, benefits of all of us meeting every week is a lot of times there
are no update, right?
We know that projects aren't moving necessarily week by week, but it allows for a built-in
kind of flag of, oh, hey, there's been no update on this project now.
It's been, you know, three or four meetings.
And then in that moment, there's the flag of, hey, can, you know, the project manager
whoever reach out and check in on the app?
Or can economic development reach out
as kind of a customer care touch point and see what's going on?
No, that's great.
And I can appreciate that you probably only
have time to cover the really big projects.
But if there was some mechanism for the little ones,
like if they stall too long, just making sure
that they also get sort of incorporated
into the going through things, which
it sounds like you are doing, the other thought I had
was that this is a big culture shift.
And I can see that everyone's enthusiastic,
and it's exciting to see.
What mechanisms are in place so a few years go by?
Maybe we're drifting off course a little bit.
We're managing the little things,
but maybe there needs to be another reset
from a big picture standpoint.
Is there every few years process where you go in and look
at the big picture again?
Somewhat akin to what you've just done,
But in a lesser degree.
So we do currently have these weekly meetings.
And these serve as a good check-in, touch point
on how things are going.
And if we do feel that things will need some sort of revival,
we do plan a workshop or an added training,
or just an added time or event or space
to create for the team to reconnect and refocus and realign.
These are the projects that we're working on.
This is something that we need to make
we bring to the end zone and to just to keep trying to achieve our goals and
then also with what we're leaning with what we're learning with lean is that it
is a continuous improvement cycle right so we're trying to stay with that and
that is our intent so thank you for your response that that kind of leads into a
question that I had is what is our response timeline when we do get a
question from a customer I typically get emails when people say I've been waiting
for, I was promised I'd hear back in a week and now it's been three weeks and I
haven't heard anything and I hate having to go to Erika but I do and but so I
just want to, is there some kind of an internal process that we commit
ourselves to get back to a customer at a certain time? If I could answer that
because so many of those questions are directed to me. We have a lot of
infrastructure behind the scenes with our Acela program so that there are
reminders and so forth and sometimes perceptions or timelines that are given
by contractors to customers so forth differ from whenever things were
actually submitted and so forth. So we essentially have a time clock and then
we have reminders and so forth but we're also not infallible and so one of those
things is to actually reach out to customers and let them know hey you know
were a little bit behind, and this is where you are in the process, and then we'll get
back to you.
It's also important to note that an important part of this continuous improvement is continually
hearing from the voice of the customer.
So back to your earlier point about how do we keep improving, we've incorporated processes
in here to actively hear from the customer, and if we start hearing things like that,
flags for us that there's something that we need to look into further well
that's great I'm in Eric and for your your response to me anyway I'm sure the
rest of the council is phenomenal and you you get back I mean I'm expecting to
hear back in a day and I often hear back within an hour and and I do love the
fact that you will fact check the customers as well I remember one
particularly said that we heard it was going to be a week it's been a month and
it turned out the contractor hadn't even submitted it yet so they're obviously
obviously not telling the truth to the customer as well, and that's interesting, so I appreciate
that. One quick more question. I don't know how the fees work typically when there's consultation,
but the fact that we have several people that were customers that are well-known business
owners and whether it's landlords or owning restaurants, and of course we have a few in
the room right now, the fact that they're supportive of this tells me that we are truly
on the right path here, which is great, how are we comparative to other cities when charging
consultant fees, whether it's the $1,000 flat fee or whether it's a $3,500 retainer?
With the recent fee study that occurred and then with our adopted master fee schedule,
we did, our consultants assisted us in comparing against other neighboring cities of a similar
other size and these numbers did compare. It was competitive with their rates. And then
also our rates, we are held to, you know, our cost recovery, so we cannot go over, you
know, 100 percent. And we did keep it at we tried to maintain a conservative, you know,
level. We didn't do full 100 on a lot of these rates just to make sure that we keep our customers
happy and satisfied.
Great, great. Well, so I'm going to finish up with a softball question. At least I hope
with a softball question.
So do you feel the whole process is going to go over well
with our customers and developers in Walnut Creek?
Yes.
Are there nods from the audience here?
Very good.
Do we have any public comment that's on the line?
And nobody in the room might take it?
Great.
Well, first of all, we'll close the questions.
Sorry, go ahead.
No, no.
I just wanted to add a few comments
before you wrap up as well.
but I want to wait and see if there's any public comment.
So it looks like no public comment?
Oh, we do have a public comment.
Well, Jeff, you can just come right down the middle.
Yes.
I can start what you're looking at.
Mr. Dudem.
Hello, my name is Jeff Dudem.
I want to thank all the people in the room, especially
the ones that work with the city, for just being
awesome in those meetings.
And taking our approaches, some of them
weren't kind. Some of us have been frustrated over the years with the way
things have been and I kind of look at the documents page of the 60-plus. That
was until about four years ago what it was like to just do a simple project in
the city of Walnut Creek. So if everyone's looking at that page that
stressful, it's confusing, it's it's not what you want to do especially for the
average person who doesn't have the education to sort through that. Four
years ago, the city of Walnut Creek, there was a shift. And Erika, I think that
you have added a lot to that. And I know this is a top-down making things happen,
but by bringing Erika in, not only changed, you know, for you to make that
phone call, but for us as customers to be able to get in there and understand and
why and get an answer that made sense to us and I think that that is where I
would start off because I thought originally because I got my first
skateboard ticket here and my second cruising ticket here it was just me that
was making it difficult from the you know the 94 to 2020 kind of how it was a
tough ride to get anything done here and again it wasn't the skateboard of the
cruising ticket it's just it was difficult and what what we went through
in that meeting was a total culture shift. I just worked on a project just
recently and all the words and all of us have different jobs different fields
that we work in and when we come into meetings like this and we get a
wonderful presentation and you sit there and you hear this it how does it actor
actually really factor in and working with... Keep going. We'll say you're
speaking for the customers. Okay. Right. So keep going. I'm curious how we're going
with this line of... Working with Simmer and Steve, and I know Simmer's not here
right now, but bringing in Henry and Fangbin, Ryan, Andrew and Mili into this
meeting and doing the A approach was something we talked about in that
meeting and it was an actual live demo I think of what we all talked about and we were working
on a project that wasn't easy and there were a lot of questions that were probably never
brought to this group before and everyone was incredibly helpful and by the end of our
first meeting before I even left there, Fang Bin was giving me copies of things to like
taken digest, Ryan was incredible, Henry was incredible, Stephen, and it was like nothing
has ever happened in the city of Walnut Creek before. So what you heard in words in beautiful
demos on the slides was actually, it's already run. And then the second meeting was, okay,
we're there, with following all the rules and the regulations and everything that you
would normally do, they gave you a decision at that point to go and if you
as a customer said okay I want to take this risk and go forward, I had a much
better feeling than the guessing game which was from before. So thank you to
everyone that helped with the project in the last month. Since 1994 I've
worked on 18 projects in downtown Walnut Creek. It's been fun, but as I will tell you now,
these wonderful opportunities that we are being provided are just going to be in Pleasant
Hill and Conquered's, and don't give a film, in hands shortly. So what we have to do, like
Craig said, is we got to keep on top of it. We got to keep with technology, we got to
keep talking to the customer. So we're not just sitting down for five years and going
Oh now we're behind the times again. I think that's really important to think through at this point, but
I would say that
The real-life example worked. So what you heard today on slides is actually
going to be make a difference for people the one thing that we need to do is we need to get to the landlords of
The city of Walnut Creek and let them know about this process because there's a few of them one of them's
Not in the room obviously right. I'm not talking Brian would definitely send them down for option A
But there are some of the landlords who maybe not know
We'll just have them sign a lease and no matter at that point if they sign that lease
You know then it doesn't matter how good the city of Walnut Creek performs. It's not going to be fast enough when they're paying rent
So I think that that's a big piece of it. So that's all I have. Thank you very much. No, appreciate it
Thank you. Thank you for coming down and speaking Jeff
It's like Brian's aching to speak to
Good evening afternoon Brian Harahara. I wasn't gonna speak but I can't let it just be Jeff
And I'll stay into the two minutes so I
Just want to say that
Thank everyone for this process staff. I do want to acknowledge that Eric has made a huge difference
I've been around a long time in the city. I won't say how long but I went through the
Blueprint for success was it a decade ago probably and there were some good changes, but we said that it's really
There was improvements, but it was a cultural issue
and
to be honest in that process
I remember saying because there was a lot of discussion of metrics they went to Palo Alto and they said it's all about metrics permits
and I said
what is how long does it take for a permit for a building permit and
kind of deer in the headlights and we never saw a number and I expressed this in our meetings with staff and I said
We went through this
No, everyone says though it takes 16 90 120 days, but there's no real number
And so in our process in which you saw on the screen was the first time I've ever seen a number
It's like then we know where where we are and how we can improve. So I think that was
Holding themselves as a staff and as a group as a services
accountable. So I think that was huge. Another recent event, and I don't want to
embarrass you Jessica, but it really was a kind of a refreshing event that we are
splitting, demising the Vineyard Vine space and we're going through a master
sign program amendment and it was going along the process. Bottom line is there
were some delays and there was some staff transition, I'll just say that and
bottom line is that I was panicked because, I'm gonna go over two minutes, I
won't go long, that I was panicked because the worst thing from a landlord
standpoint is when they're ready to get their sign and they say and we say well
we don't have it approved yet as a landlord and then it gets into it's it's
nightmare and then they say we can't open without a sign so I was losing
sleep and I got an email back from Jessica saying hey you know we had
issues on our sides we apologize we're just gonna instead of going to sign
subcommittee we're gonna go straight to design of you commission and we're you
know comfortable with that and then for me before that I was going god we got
signs of committee then we got us you know it could be a month and a half down
the road. Bottom line is it went great. We got approved. I slept much better. But just
the spirit of customer service of that they took responsibility and said, hey, we had
issues on our end. And I said, hey, there's no harm, no foul. It's okay. But I think the
attitude told me that there is that cultural shift going on at staff level, which in my
20 plus years, 25 plus years, I haven't seen. So I'm very excited. Thank you
everyone in this room for all the effort and leadership and I think it's going to
be great for Walnut Creek. Thank you. Thanks, Brian. Anybody else from the
public? Okay, City Manager Dan. Yeah, I just want to share a couple of
summary level of thoughts about the impetus for this and some of you may
recall that actually when I started here the prime one of the primary goals you
gave me was to see further improvement in development services so nine years
later here we are it's taking a little longer than planned but there have been
him that is actually a true statement obviously we had a big disruption with
COVID but one of the impetus is for this more recently is knowing how much
things changed in COVID knowing there were considerable vacancy rates knowing
that other cities were changing,
we wanted our development service permitting processes
to move from being a hindrance to a competitive advantage.
Now we wanna get to the point where not only
is Walnut Creek known for its intrinsically high value
in terms of being a destination for the many reasons
that it is for not only housing and jobs,
but for entertainment, for it to live, work, and play,
but that going through this process
is the model, preferably, in all of California,
that it is a great place to do business
and get through that process.
That's really the goal that we are working towards.
And what this started with was considerable focus
and training on customer service,
with the goal that we are a customer-centric organization,
not only for development services, but city-wide.
And as I'm sure every staff in here hopefully could repeat,
they've heard me say it numerous times,
we all have jobs here at the city for one reason
and one reason only.
and that is to provide service to the community.
We're not here to flip a profit,
we're not here to return shareholder value.
Certainly, we wanna be very resourceful
with taxpayer dollars and very prudent with those,
but at the same time, we are here to provide service.
So it's really started, as you heard,
with the culture shift and focusing on the customer.
A big piece of that is understanding the customer mindset
and hearing from the customer regularly.
So making great progress on that front, as you've seen,
we're also obviously then working to be more efficient
And streamline our processes, reduce any redundancies
to really look across all of the different divisions
and departments through a unified lens
so that we are as unified and streamlined as possible
with really, that put it really simply,
we wanna allow projects to go through
and better, faster, cheaper.
That's really what everybody wants at the end of the day
and that's what we are working towards.
And along those lines, one of the things that we've heard
and it ties into both process and the customer service piece,
we've heard consistently for many years,
even going back to the early blueprint days,
which predate me by a year or two,
is that developers want certainty
and they want flexibility.
They wanna know roughly how long something is going to take,
what that process, what the next steps are,
so that there's that certainty
and within the regulations that we have
that we can be flexible.
How do we get to yes?
There are many cities or many regulatory agencies
that have a why it can't happen mindset and know first.
we wanna have a mindset of how do we get to yes,
assuming that the project falls within the parameters
set by the council and that we can work with.
So, that's where we're evolving, that's where we're at.
We started this, I don't know if this was mentioned
or not, focusing on restaurants.
And the reason being is we wanted to focus
on kind of mid-size businesses that's applicable
to many other types of businesses.
We also intend to subsequently apply the lean process
to housing as our next focus after we finish this phase
And then obviously expand from there.
And then ideally we have numerous people
trained at the city on lean processes.
We can begin deploying this to other parts of the city
beyond development services to really engage
that mindset of continuous improvement that lean offers.
And then lastly, I just did want to acknowledge
the entire team, as noted, this is a team effort
that focuses community development,
our engineering departments, our public works team.
economic development and all of our outside agencies so it's been a great effort and
really nice to see this progress over the last many months and all the progress and
all of the excitement and interest in this project has been really rewarding to be a
part of so thank you to everybody involved.
Thanks Dan and so much much like your comments ten years ago when I was first running for
City Council and it was probably summer around 2016 I was meeting with some different business
owners I said what's your big issue and they talked about timeliness,
responsiveness, making sure that you know why do we just get the feedback saying
no that won't work come back again rather than figuring out a way to make
this all make sense and how can we be the city that helps you get there we've
heard all sorts of iterations of loud along the way everything from a concierge
to just more responsiveness in general and I think that's the reason why we
we have economic development and downtown vitality is one of our priorities as well.
And so my frequent conversations with the business community, developers that are in
the residential community have all focused on that.
And 10 years ago we talked about how other cities like Concord with the verand and San
Ramon with City Center, they're stepping up and Walnut Creek still has this attitude.
This is not what I said, but this is what I heard back, Walnut Creek has the attitude
of we're the only game in town.
and so you have to play by our rules now.
Well, yes, of course they have to play by the rules,
but I think the fact that we are more of a customer
service-friendly city and development team
is really going to pay dividends,
and now we've seen what's happened in these other cities,
and they have stepped up,
but I think we've really stepped up now as well.
I really appreciate the effort that the staff
has put into this, that leadership has put in this,
and the business community has been involved
because it's not just telling us something
and then disappearing, but it's actually being involved
and helping the sausage get made.
So thank you to the business community at large
and the staff and any other comments on this as well.
But yeah, very appreciative here.
I just wanted to say, in 2016, I started our company
and I went through the website for the city
and it was really hard to figure out what to do.
And we did a big remodel in 2018.
And it was the same experience.
I think, well, wait a second.
I do permit.
I know how to do this.
And I love the education materials.
They work much better than what was there back then.
And I really appreciate it.
It's a much better customer service experience.
And I really appreciate the enthusiasm
and the energy you guys have brought.
Again, thank you.
And it's been a long road.
What's refreshing here is that I'm not hearing the following comment that I heard probably 15 years ago.
I was standing in the planning department looking out the window at a restaurant and they had no sign.
And I said, I don't understand why they don't have the sign.
You can't do business if you don't have a sign that says you're in business.
And the answer I got was, well, they haven't come and asked us what to do.
which I said maybe that they don't have a sign is an indication that they know
how to run a restaurant but they don't know how to build a sign perhaps you
should make a phone call that's not what I expect to hear today because you're
you recognize that the customer may not always be right but they could always
they may always be confused thanks I think actually good point because a lot
of the restaurants actually are owned by people that this they may be first
generation Americans and so they just don't know the processes so great point.
I mean I think I'm probably gonna start hitting on some of the same things but
the collaboration between departments is I mean seeing that is truly impressive
all viewing yourself as like one team the way that you do. I love the meetings
the preliminary the concept meeting then having the preliminary review team and
then also having the ongoing consultations the idea that there's a
the space to be able to access staff and the whole team,
not just one department.
The fact that when you're dealing with an issue now,
you deal with it by issue instead of by department,
just sitting on the same points, but it's
the collaboration that's taking place.
And to what Jeff mentioned earlier,
removing the unnecessary old or redundant documents.
I mean, I can just share my experience in the hospital.
It's so easy to form a committee and add a process,
add a step, add something you have to click on,
add a new sound that goes off.
But I always wonder like, well, who's gonna go through
and for everything we add, like remove something, you know,
otherwise it's sort of just like death by checklists
and things like that.
So that was great to see as well.
But really appreciate what you're doing.
I think this is super important for the city,
for the community, for the businesses.
So thank you.
Yeah, Ben, when you said this has been an awesome experience,
I could tell that was kind of a genuine emotion from you.
And it was infectious to hear that.
It was really kind of heartening to hear that, too,
that it's been transformative.
Jeff's left, but when he said the thing about how
we need to reach out to the landlords, Walnut Creek
downtown, what I'll often do when I go to a grand opening,
I'm like, well, how was the city process?
And generally, I'll get comments like, well,
It took a long time, but that's at the tail end, right?
How do we get them into option,
let them know about option A and get them at the front end
so that that part can be streamlined?
I guess I was also struck by sort of what Brian had relayed
and what Erica said when you said, we're not infallible
and that they're, and Jessica acknowledged
that there were problems on our end.
It's not often, there's, it gets to be egos involved,
and it's not often someone can just say,
I made a mistake.
And when we do that, I'm really heartened to hear
that we did that and we owned it,
and I think the more we can put that into practice,
when it truly is on us, now if it's on the applicant,
we just remind them gently, like, well, no,
you haven't resubmitted, you actually,
contractor hasn't actually submitted the plan.
So the cultural shift seems real,
and I'm excited about that,
And then just finally, I would add a plug for the,
do I need a permit?
Because I think if we can make it as easy as possible,
I'll give the example,
do I need a permit to fill in a swimming pool?
And the contractor is gonna say,
oh, you don't need a permit for that.
And the typical homeowner will say,
I don't need a permit for that.
The contractor told me that.
They're not likely going to call the city.
And I think, maybe they'll go on the website
to double check it?
And then if we can just have an easy one-pager,
what do I need a permit for?
Pool is probably not a good idea,
because not a good example.
But other ones, do I need a permit
at an HVAC unit or something like that?
And with that, it's been a really exciting process.
I'm looking forward to seeing this come to fruition.
And to Council Member Davini's point,
we've had these different iterations over the year,
version 2.0 and version 3.0,
But I view this as kind of an endless loop.
Like it's, it'll continue whatever,
maybe it won't be called the lien process,
but it'll be this continued pattern of involvement
and cultural shift that I don't know that we'll need another,
hopefully we won't need another type of program.
Yeah.
And I'm prepared.
I, I'm pleased to make the motion to accept the report
from the development services team.
I'll second that. I'll amend the motion to say and to congratulate the team for
on behalf that this entire community of the work that you've been doing. I'll gladly
accept that amendment. So moved. Can I have the roll please? Mayor Pro Tem Francois? Aye. Council Member Darling? Aye. Council Member Dibany? Aye. Council Member Silva? Aye. And Mayor Wilk? Aye. Alright and with that we'll adjourn the City Council
special meeting and we'll reconvene at 6 o'clock for our regular meeting.