The National Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age

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• The National Alliance for Building Regulatory
  Reform in the Digital Age
• REDUCING BARRIERS TO HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
  AFFORDABILITY
• The use of information technology to streamline
  the nation's building regulatory process to
  enable our construction industry "to build
  faster, better, safer and at less cost."
• How Regulatory Barriers Impact Housing
  Development
• St. Paul, Minnesota
• January 7-8, 2004

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CONSTRUCTION'S CRITICAL ROLE IN OUR PUBLIC'S
SAFETY AND THE ECONOMIC HEALTH OF OUR NATION

• IT'S A LARGE PART OF OUR ECONOMY
• 1.1 trillion per year industry
• 12 of our gross domestic product
• 50 of our national wealth is in buildings
• Provides the infrastructure for our economy
• It stimulates economic recovery and growth
• It houses where Americans live, work, and play

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THE CONSTRUCTION REGULATORY PROCESS

• EITHER
• Enhances the economic development,
  competitiveness and public safety by ensuring
  safe, affordable, quality buildings disaster
  resistance and, where regulations are uniform
  within a region, ready response.
• OR
  
• Hinders economic development, competitiveness
  and public safety by causing unnecessary
  confusion, cost, and time delays through
  overlapping, duplicative, and conflicting
  regulations, codes, and standards.

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THE CONSTRUCTION REGULATORY PROCESS AS A
HINDRANCE

• - Restricts widespread use and market for
  aggregation for new products and technologies
• - Adds as much as 100,000 per day in
  additional costs for unnecessary inspection
  delays
• - Makes it difficult for neighboring
  jurisdictions to coordinate disaster protection
  and provide immediate disaster response
  assistance to each other

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UNFORTUNATELY, IN THE U.S. TODAY TOO MANY
JURISDICTIONS FIND THEIR REGULATORY PROCESS IS
THE LATTER (HINDRANCE) NOT THE FORMER

• THE PROBLEM?
• Over 44,000 units of state and local governments
  adopt and enforce construction codes and
  standards
• Stovepipe bureaucracies and regulatory
  overlap/duplication cause conflict and confusion
  between government, the public and the
  construction community, slowing down construction
  process, reducing competitiveness, and safety
• Lack of greater use of Information Technology
  (IT)
• Procurements, training, and common operating
  standards keeping costs for these services too
  high for many jurisdictions and limiting the
  market for software industry.

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TO ADDRESS THESE PROBLEMS THE MAY 31 - JUNE 1,
2001 NATIONAL FORUM ON BUILDING SMARTER IN THE
DIGITAL AGE - ARLINGTON, VA

• In the summer of 2001, representatives from 41
  national organizations representing the
  construction and information technology
  communities and governmental agencies from all
  levels of government came together to discuss
  these problems and see how information technology
  might remove these barriers to safe, affordable
  construction

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TO ADDRESS THESE PROBLEMS

• The Forum participants gained common
  understanding of barriers and drafted an Action
  Agenda to address these problems. They also
  proposed the formation of a national alliance to
  implement the draft Agenda of reform

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NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR BUILDING REGULATORY REFORM
IN THE DIGITAL AGE FORMED AND ACTION AGENDA
ADOPTED

Vision Statement Use information technology to
transform the nation's building regulatory
process to enable the nation's construction
industry to build "faster, better, safer and at
less cost."
JULY 12, 2001 - National Governors Association
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II - ADOPTED ACTION AGENDA STATEMENT OF NEED
AND WORK PRODUCTS

• Growing demand by public and private sectors for
  government to operate more effectively and
  efficiently to both enhance homeland security and
  reduce regulatory time/costs creates immediate
  need for
• A national coordinated effort involving all
  levels of government, construction, and I.T.
  communities to
• Identify and share best practices - hardware,
  software, and restructuring of the architecture
  of our current regulatory system to reduce
  regulatory costs to construction by up to 60
• Promote common standards for digital signatures,
  simple common e-permits, plans review, field
  inspection software, and common systems
  requirements that include interoperability
• Identify and obtain funding to develop an
  advocacy and grants program to streamline the
  nation's building regulatory process at all
  levels of government, facilitated by the more
  effective use of information technology

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III - ADOPTED ACTION AGENDA IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

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FROM FALL 2001 - FALL 2003 THE ALLIANCE

• Held organizational meetings of committees and
  task forces,
• adopted work agendas, and

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WORK ACCOMPLISHED BY THE ALLIANCE

• Developed a matrix and placed on Alliance portion
  of NCSBCS website a "Listing of software
  currently available to state and local
  governments."
• Placed on website of Model streamlining
  processes
• With assistance from the National Association of
  State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO),
  initiated work on architecture for more efficient
  building regulatory systems at state and local
  levels of government
• Developed Business Case for Regulatory
  Streamlining
• Reviewed hardware being used

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WORK ACCOMPLISHED BY ALLIANCE (Continued)

• Drafted and distributed outline of the
  components of a secure, nationwide,
  state-maintained database for first responders of
  as-built building designs, evacuation plans, and
  other key contact information for critical
  structures

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OTHER ALLIANCE ACTIVITIES FROM JULY 2001 -
SEPTEMBER 2003

• Issued annual reports to nation's governors,
  CIOs, state legislators

Governors attending the NGA E-Governance Task
Force (above) Meeting at NGA Annual Meeting in
Providence, RI on August 6, 2001 received a
CD-ROM report on the formation of the Alliance
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OTHER ALLIANCE ACTIVITIES (Continued)

• Expanded Alliance Membership to 42
• Articles in publications / presentations at
  national meetings
• Meetings with White House Office of Science and
  Technology Policy
• Prototype streamlining projects with states of
  CA, KY, NY, OR, PA, VA, WA
• Developed and posted on website model procurement
  guidelines for state and local governments

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Other Alliance Activities
INITIATE WORK OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING TASK FORCE -
First meeting August 29, 2002 - Meeting April,
2003 - Meeting January, 2004
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MISSION STATEMENT FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING TASK
FORCE
"Provide mechanism for rapid dissemination to
local and state building regulators, home
builders, elected officials, and the public,
information on, and set of work tools generated
by, the National Alliance that lower the cost of
residential construction through the effective
use of information technology." The Affordable
Housing Task Force will coordinate these efforts
with the ongoing efforts of the task force
members, including the Partnership for Advancing
Technology in Housing (PATH). Initial products
include draft guide to rural and suburban
jurisdictions on how to streamline their building
regulatory processes, and listing of available,
permitting, plans review and inspection software.
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EXAMPLES OF STREAMLINED REGULATORY PROCESSES AND
SAVINGS TO COMMUNITIES
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Examples of Streamlined Processes

• One Stop Permit Process - On Line Permitting
• Consolidated / Combination Inspections - IVR
  systems for inspection scheduling
• Hand-held devices for field inspections
• Electronic plan submittals, review, and tracking

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Examples of Streamlined Processes

• Customer Oriented Culture - Pre-permit Counseling
  / Case Management
• Fast Track Reviews
• Staff Training and Certification
• Code Uniformity and Uniform Interpretation

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CASE STUDIES OF SAVINGS BEING ACHIEVED

• City of Los Angeles, California
• Handled 88 increase in construction activity
  with only 1.5 increase in staff
• Reduced Median wait time for permits from 2-3
  hours to 7 minutes
• Reduced Plan Check time from 10 weeks to 10 days
• Reduced inspection wait time from 4-5 days to
  less than 24 hours
• Brought 36,000 run down properties up to code

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CASE STUDIES OF SAVINGS BEING ACHIEVED

• Milpitas, California
• Formed, "Partnership to Achieve Goals" a
  coalition of home builders, other construction
  firms to support the City's purchase, training,
  and use of I.T. for on-line permit applications,
  permit tracking, plans submittals and reviews.
• Reduced permit processing, inspection scheduling
  and inspection times by over 60
• Established true one-stop process for all
  construction code applications - working on
  extending to zoning and land use

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CASE STUDIES OF SAVINGS BEING ACHIEVED

• State of Oregon - Tri-County Area (Portland)
• Developed consortium of builders, business
  community and regulators to develop and launch in
  2003 - Governors streamlining initiative -
  "Building One-Stop Process and Regulatory
  Streamlining Initiative."
• Drafting for use first in Tri-County - Metro
  Portland area a one stop process for construction
  approvals that uses
• - Common forms procedures
• - E-permitting, IVR inspection scheduling
• - Uniform code interpretations
• - Ability to share building plans between
  jurisdiction to facilitate disaster response

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CASE STUDIES OF SAVINGS BEING ACHIEVED

• Fairfax County, Virginia
• Initiated program to integrate building
  regulatory system with zoning and land use to
  establish true one-stop, on-line permitting,
  plans review processes
• Issued first of several contracts to develop
  database for above system

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KEY TO STREAMLINING SUCCESS?

• Stakeholder Involvement (Builders, developers,
  financial community, community groups, public,
  elected officials, building regulators and
  zoning/planning officials)
• Form Private-Public Partnerships
• Long-term Commitment to Change/Build Trust
• To Keep Trust - No Surprises

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KEY TO STREAMLINING SUCCESS?

• State and local governments need to be partners
  with private sector
• Federal Role - Support, promote best
  practices/assist funding implementation

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ACTION AGENDA ITEMS FOR SUMMER 2003 - SUMMER 2004

• Develop effective statewide and local building
  regulatory system architecture and share with
  jurisdictions (In coordination with NASCIO)
• Conduct cost/benefit analysis of Regulatory
  Streamlining
• Develop project to speed use of interoperable
  hardware and software by state and local
  governments

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THE CHALLENGES AND NEEDS ARE GREAT AND TIME IS
SHORT

• HOMELAND SECURITY - PREVENTION, PREPAREDNESS,
  RESPONSE
• ECONOMIC RECOVERY COMPETITIVENESS
• HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
• GREATER EFFICIENCY IN GOVERNMENT

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TO ASSIST THE ALLIANCE IN HELPING OUR
NATION/COMMUNITIES ENHANCE PUBLIC SAFETY AND
ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS

• Share information on the National Alliance with
  elected and appointed officials in your state/
  local community, with your construction and
  information technology industries, colleagues in
  your agency, association, company.
• Encourage the use of streamlined processes and
  Alliance products in your state/community.
• Provide information to the Alliance on I.T.
  applications that are effective in reducing the
  regulatory cost of construction and enhancing
  public safety.
• Participate in the Alliance's Fourth National
  Forum on Building Smarter in the Digital Age in
  Salt Lake City, Utah, September 30, 2004, to
  learn more about what information technology can
  do to enhance our community's economic
  competitiveness and public safety.

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ASSIST THE ALLIANCE IN HELPING OUR NATION AND
YOUR STATE/COMMUNITY

• Join the National Alliance as a Member or
  Affiliate and become active on one or more of the
  Alliance's Task Forces
• Contact your construction community and elected
  officials to express your support for the funding
  and implementation of the National Alliance's
  Action Agenda

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FOR MORE INFORMATIONON THE ALLIANCE

• For more information on the Alliance, its Action
  Agenda, work products, and membership PLEASE
  VISIT THE NCSBCS WEBSITE www.ncsbcs.org or
  contact Carolyn Fitch at NCSBCS, 703-437-0100,
  extension 238 / cfitch_at_ncsbcs.org