Development Services
City of Columbus

This Memorandum of Understanding (mou) sets forth the policies and procedures defined by city and industry representatives during the third quarter of 2001 to improve development services in the City of Columbus.  Development services include the processes for plat/plan review and approval, permitting, and inspection of private development.  City representatives include employees from departments and divisions that provide development services.  Industry representatives include developers, builders, architects, engineers, consultants, and association leaders engaged in private development in the City of Columbus.  NOTE:  Wherever the term “plan review” or “plan approval” appears in this document, it refers to site plan and engineering plans unless or otherwise stated or indicated.

Following execution of this mou, a resolution endorsing it will be submitted to the City Council.  Additionally the City Council will be asked to codify select provisions of this mou including basic industry responsibilities, the internal review process, service standards, and redress procedures addressing employee performance plans/evaluations, fee credit/rebate, and Building Administrator decision on plan disposition.  The 2002 city budget will include a new special revenue fund for development services excluding those provided by the Public Utilities Department that are included in distinct enterprise funds.  Expenditures and revenues within the special revenue fund will be only for and from development services, separate from and independent of the city’s General Fund.  Development fees will be reviewed and adjusted annually to generate revenue sufficient to fully fund the cost of development services.

City Responsibilities

  1.      Designate a single point of responsibility and accountability for development services, that being the position of Building Services Administrator, who will:

§         Manage the policies, procedures and processes set forth in this mou, and

§         Establish a Development Services Council and schedule and chair monthly meetings of the Council: 

a)      The Council will provide a management oversight role for development services, examining such aspects as process and operational efficiency, consistency, and reliability; service standard compliance; process tracking and documentation; and effective resource utilization.

b)      Council membership will consist of ten persons representative of the development community, including a home builder, land developer, commercial builder, commercial developer, general contractor, building trades representative, architect, engineer, and industry association member.

c)      The Building Services Administrator, Public Utilities Director or designee, Public Service Director or designee, Chief Building Official, Chief Zoning Official, Building Plans Examiner III/Operations Manager, and Construction Inspection Supervisor will be ex-officio Council members and will attend the monthly Council meetings.  Representatives of other departments (e.g., Finance and Technology) may be invited Council meetings.

2.     Provide development services consistent with the service standards set forth in this mou, which obligates the City t

§         Establish and maintain appropriate staff levels;

§         Provide appropriate training of primary and back-up staff; and

§         Utilize overtime and contract services as may be needed for peak periods or extraordinarily large projects.

3.     Make information available to applicants in print and on-line clearly explaining its development laws, requirements, standards, procedures, and processes, including but not limited t

§         Production and distribution of a quarterly InfoGram to describe code changes, code interpretations, current issues and such other information that will contribute to improved customer service

§         Display quarterly InfoGram on Development Department web page and distribute via e-mail to contractors, trade associations, builders, developers and builder/ developer associations.

§         Produce and distribute checklists for plat contents/requirements, key code requirements and problems of interest to building and mechanical inspectors, etc.

4.      In consultation with the development industry, plan and schedule training seminars to share industry-staff concerns, frustrations, problems and issues with development services and to identify specific actions to address the issues--target: half-day seminars held quarterly beginning first quarter 2002. 

5.      Consult with the industry before making fee, policy, rule, or procedural changes that affect it.

6.      Provide applicants the opportunity to have a pre-filing project review to identify requirements, discuss potential issues and answer questions.

7.      Endeavor to avoid accepting for review a plat/plan that is not complete and in any case, return to the applicant an initial or a revised plat/plan that is found to be incomplete as soon as such finding occurs, with notation of the missing information.

8.      Establish and maintain a tracking system to identify and document processing time for plan/plat review/approval and permitting. 

9.      Notify the applicant’s contact person of the name of the coordinator assigned to coordinate his/her plat/plan review when such assignment is made.

10.  Establish an e-mail hotline for plan/plat review questions/status; city will respond to e-mail questions within one-business day.

11.  The intake division will specify digital standards for plats and plans and the number of paper copies to be submitted.  NOTE: The City is in the process of transitioning to utilization of a Geographic Information System (GIS), which will involve establishing new submission standards for development plans that will include positional accuracy and state plane coordinate reference standards.  As these standards are adopted, they will be available to applicants electronically and in print at the city locations where permit applications and development plans are filed. 

12.   Establish a standard agreement form for issuance of a limited or partial building permit prior to site plan approval.  Building Services may issue a limited or partial building permit to enable construction commencement while a site plan issue is being resolved, provided that:

§         The limited/partial construction does not impact the site plan issue in question, and

§         The applicant and the City agree on the limit of the permitted construction and a time frame for resolving the issue in question.

Read “site plan issue” broadly to include such things as zoning provision interpretation or applicability, off-site turning lane requirement, etc.

NOTE: Items 13 through 20 address inspection of building construction, not utility or road construction.

13.  Perform requested building inspections in the field on a timely basis, i.e., within one business day of receiving the request, with not less than 90% of inspections being made on the day of the request.  This service level requires maintaining authorized personnel strength, which the City will diligently endeavor to maintain. 

14.  Provide builders/contractors checklists for structural, hvac, plumbing, and electrical inspections, identifying the main points that inspectors look for including the most common deficiencies they find [March 2002 target date].  The checklists are helpful guidelines for the industry and do not forgive code compliance requirements.

15.  Collect and document causes of re-inspections.  Provide the Building Services Administrator a summary of the most common re-inspection causes for the January 2002 Development Services Council meeting.  Update the summary quarterly and share with the Development Services Council and trades and industry associations quarterly.  Provide the Building Services Administrator a monthly report of the number of residential and commercial re-inspections comparing current year monthly to previous year monthly re-inspections; distribute the report to the Development Services Council and trades and industry associations monthly.

16.  Advise the builder/contractor of the applicable code section when rejecting work and limit the re-inspection to only the work that was rejected during the initial inspection except in the case of serious hazards created by an unapproved change to the approved construction documents. 

17.  Builders and contractors encountering a perceived occurrence of unwarranted or inappropriate inspection rejection should report same immediately to the Field Area Supervisor for resolution.  If not satisfactorily resolved at this level, the dispute shall be taken promptly to the Trade Specific Inspection Supervisor for resolution. If not satisfactorily resolved at this level, the dispute shall be taken promptly to the Building Inspection Manager for resolution. If not satisfactorily resolved at this level, the

18.  The City and the industry will work diligently and cooperatively to reduce the numbers of re-inspection to a mutually acceptable level, utilizing checklists, joint training sessions, and such other means as may be identified as appropriate. 

19.  Maintain legally required continuing education.  Design and deliver training programs to promote consistent code interpretations by building plans examiners and field inspectors and to address other areas of concern to the City and the industry that arise from time-to-time.

20.  Work with the industry to identify potential inspection consolidations, to reduce the number of single family house inspections without sacrificing public safety and code compliance [March 2002 target date]. 

21.  Establish control procedures and maintain staffing of the Building Services File Room to ensure that plans and files are always available for reference by plan review and permitting staff.

22.  Implement the following information technology enhancements:

§         Create and adopt a digital zoning map [January 2002 target date];

§         Acquire ten floating Alchemy licenses to provide Building Service electronic access to the zoning text [January 2002 target date];

§         Update the City of Columbus Development Guide and place it on the Development Department web site [January 2002 target date];

§         Place the Development Department’s Building Procedures Manual on the department’s web site [January 2002 target date];

§         Establish standards for digital submittal of plats and site plans, building on the standards developed for the Division of Sewerage and Drainage [January 2002 target date];

§         Provide Metro Net connectivity and hardware and software to enable digital submittal of plats and site plans to Building Services, electronic distribution to other divisions for review and comment, and digital recording and transmission of staff review comments  [July 2002 target date];

§         Upgrade the ODS application and the Development Department web site to enable the issuance of mechanical permits, the tracking of plan reviews/permit applications, and the scheduling of field inspections [July 2002 target date];

§         Develop databases and programs utilizing GIS technology for the certified address, platting, site plan and annexation processes [January 2003 target date]; and

§         Create a database and program to provide electronic linkage of a parcel on the digital zoning map to its history, zoning text, limitation text, variances and such other information needed for plan review/permitting [January 2003 target date]. 

Applicant Responsibilities

1. Learn and comply with the city’s development laws, requirements, standards, procedures, and processes.
   
2. Avoid submitting an incomplete or noncompliant plat or plan.
   
3. Address all review comments when submitting a revised plat or plan; provide a written explanation of any review comment not fully addressed.  On the final print of engineering plans, highlight changes that represent differences from the preliminary plan that are not responses to review comments.
   
4. Contact the zoning staff, or other staff if appropriate, to schedule a project review before filing an application for plat/plan approval or building permit--mandatory for a rezoning or a variance and recommended for other developments.
   
5. When filing an application, provide the City with the plat or plan in both digital form and paper.  Digital plan submission is optional for one, two, and three family residential structures. 
   
6. When submitting a plat, site plan or infrastructure engineering plan,
   
   Designate a single contact person, who will be the person with whom the City communicates regarding plat/plan review status, and
   
   Indicate the project decision-maker, i.e., the owner, developer or principal.
   
7. When a development will be implemented in phases, depict the planned phases on water and sewer engineering plans and on preliminary and final plats, with the understanding that phase descriptions may vary from the preliminary to final plat.
   
8. For commercial developments, file a site plan for review/approval prior to final building plan preparation and permit application (encouraged, not mandated).
   
9. Submit final engineering plans for (a) sanitary sewer and (b) street, storm sewer, water, grading, erosion control and street lighting prior to or concurrently with the final plat.  The engineer preparing the engineering plans and the final plat should obtain reference drawing numbers (CC-sewers and private water and DrD or DrE-roadways and public water) for the engineering plans from the appropriate division and place them on the plat when submitting the final plat.  These numbers will be reflected on the Plat Recommendation Sheets distributed to the reviewing divisions. 

Internal Reviews

1. An integral part of the plat/plan approval process involves review and comment by specified units within multiple city departments.  Additionally plats/plans are distributed to specified external agencies for information purposes.
   
2. Site plans and subdivision plats are filed with the Building Services Division of the Development Department, 757 Carolyn Avenue.
   
3. Sanitary sewer and private CC storm sewer engineering plans are filed with the Division of Sewerage and Drainage and private water line plans are filed with the Water Division of the Public Utilities Department, 910 Dublin Road.
   
4. DrD and DrE roadway, storm sewer, water, grading, erosion control and street lighting engineering plans are filed with the Public Service Department, Roadway Engineering Section, at 109 Front Street.
   
5. When a plat, site plan or infrastructure engineering plan is filed, the intake division will assign an individual to each one, to coordinate the internal review process, assure compliance with service standards, document process impediments, e.g., staff performance that delays processing and applicant errors or omissions in initial or revised plat/plan submittals, and submit a monthly report to the Building Services Administrator that summarizes the documented information. 
   
6. Reviewing staff from other divisions will cooperate with the assigned internal review coordinator and will respond constructively to his/her requests.
   
7. Internal reviews will be completed within the time frame indicated in the respective service standard.
   
8. If the internal review coordinator does not receive the reviewed plat/plan with comments from any reviewing division within the time frame specified in the service standard, he/she may assume the delinquent reviewing division has no comment. 
   
9. The internal review coordinator will return to the engineer/architect/consultant/ contact person the plat/plan for revision following initial review and subsequent review(s) if the initial plat/plan revision is incomplete, not compliant with review comments, or altered unacceptably from the initially reviewed plat/plan.  The internal review coordinator will also promptly notify the project decision-maker at the time of returning a plat/plan to the project contact person, advising that the submitted plat/plan has missing or noncompliant information and has been returned to the project contact person for revision and correction. 
   
10. If the internal review coordinator determines that a revised plat/plan complies with review comments, he/she is not obligated to recirculate the revised plat/plan for additional review.
    
11. If the internal review coordinator can not clearly determine that a revised plat/plan complies with review comments, he/she will return the revised plat/plan for review/ comment to the division that made the comment about which compliance is in question.
    
12. Reviewing divisions are strongly discouraged from raising new comments on second reviews unless the comments are addressing a plat/plan element altered from the initial submittal.
    
13. Distribution of a preliminary plat and a final plat will be (a) for informational purposes only (FYI) or (b) for review and comment (R&C) as indicated in the table below.  “S” indicates that this division signs off on the final plat.