PORT TOWNSEND — An online permit portal will accept Port Townsend city building and right-of-way permit applications starting as the new year begins.
The portal is expected to be launched on Tuesday.
The digital transition is an initiative by the Planning and Community Development and Public Works departments to streamline permit review and reduce processing time, according to Emma Bolin, director of the planning department, in a press release.
Bolin, who recently joined Port Townsend from Port Angeles, said this project “completes my first major housing initiative as director. … It’s time for Port Townsend applicants to have better access to the City’s review process and for it to occur concurrently across City departments.”
Said Mayor David Faber: “Electronic permitting will improve our ability to effectively deliver timely and predictable permits.
“This supports the city council’s initiative to resolve our community’s housing challenges by increasing transparency, customer satisfaction, communication, and eliminating the costs involved with printing and managing paper records.”
The transition to digital permitting will effectively open permitting processes to seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and possibly save applicants gas money, postage and costs of supplies, mainly paper, Bolin said.
The city has long been accepting some mechanical, re-roofing and solar permits digitally, but with this launch, it will expand to building, street development and minor improvement permits, Bolin said.
“The launch of these digital permits will guide the digital transition of land use permits, which will be the final target in the digitization effort expected in mid-2023,” she said.
City Building Official David Nakagawara said the city’s permit database was never fully developed to accept digital online submissions, until now.
“Staff diligently worked with our software vendor to configure what would be needed for the digital communication to occur,” he said in the release.
“The process feels like a space exploration adventure. For years, we knew how to heat the spaceship to grow food and survive, but now we have the knowledge and ability to launch and explore the galaxy.”
Electronic permitting changes how permit applicants must submit because they will need a portal account first.
Instructions for setting up an account is expected to be online by Tuesday at ci-porttownsend-wa.smartgovcommunity.com/ApplicationPublic/ApplicationHome. For help, call 360-379-5095.
As with any building permit application, applicants should have all pertinent project information available to enter using the portal when prompted, including required documents for upload in .pdf format.
The fee payment instructions will be provided at the end of the process.
Producing the .pdf files electronically using computer software such as Computer Aided Design is ideal for simpler digital submission (these programs range from Bluebeam to free applications such as SketchUp), according to the release.
For simpler permits, the city will continue to accept hand-drawn site plans and project plans, drawn to scale — except these drawings must be scanned into .pdf format. Templates for these simple plans are still available on the PCD website.
Various print shops and copy centers in and around the city offer scanning services into .pdf format. The city will not provide this service, however, since there will no longer be a cost associated with printing, the release said.
City inspection procedures also will change. Applicants must print one copy of the approved plans and building permit to keep on site in a waterproof container.
The building inspector will be able to log inspection results immediately in the portal or will be able to print correction notices from the city truck and post them on site.
Finally, all inspection requests will need to be submitted via the portal.
The city will phase out the use of the inspection request hotline with a formal shutdown on March 31.
