Presentation #29 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Planning and Building Agency • Continuing Operations & Services During COVID Closures PBA services deemed essential under the Governor's stay at home order were successfully maintained under a continuity of operations and service plan developed by the Department, allowing the City to continue providing entitlement, permitting, inspection, and enforcement services addressing community demands and maintaining a safe work environment for City staff. • Facilitating the Local Economy & Business Resiliency A Guide for retail and food establishments to operate in compliance with the Governor's stay at home order was developed by PBA in coordination with CDA, and was implemented under an Executive Order issued by the City Manager. The Guide enabled many retail and food service businesses in Santa Ana to sustain and survive economic challenges throughout this continuing pandemic. • Defending the City Against RHNA Challenges Under the leadership of the City Manager and working closely with the SCAG staff, PBA successfully defended the City against appeals filed by four Orange County Cities challenging SCAG's RHNA allocation of housing units allocated to the City for the 2021-2029 RHNA planning cycle. • Facilitating Major Development Projects PBA issued over 5,200 permits with a total valuation of over $353 million. These figures are consistent with the previous year. The Department also facilitated the entitlement of major projects such as Amazon last mile facility on Grand, One Broadway Plaza, Third & Broadway, Northgate Market Site, Central Pointe, The Bowery, and Westview Affordable Housing Project. • Streamlining & Moving to a Digital Environment PBA, PWA & IT worked collaboratively and acquired Avolve, a paperless e-Plan & document review and approval software, enabling the City to interact, review, and approve construction and development plans digitally. This measure helped to streamline the permitting process and to reduce submission costs for the applicant. This team is also working to implement a GIS-based process that will enable planning, building, finance, and engineering functions to process, manage, and approve development projects in a digital environment further streamlining the development process and allowing the City to better interact with customers in a digital environment and on the web. 55