PORT ANGELES — Want to check the status of your Clallam County building permit?
Come April 1, you’ll be able to do so online.
Sheila Roark Miller, Clallam County’s Community Development director, said the Web upgrade will allow the public to view pending building, water, land division, septic or other permits for any parcel in the county.
Roark Miller, who campaigned on technology for public convenience in 2010, said the online permit center will save the county money and free up valuable staff time.
Permit center manager Tom Shindler on Monday gave the three county commissioners an online demonstration of how the “e-connect” system will work.
“It’s a module to the permit system [Tidemark Advantage] we’ve had for 27 years, something like that, and it’s one that we have tried to implement before, but there were bugs in it, and we kept having to abandon that effort until recently,” Shindler said.
“Finally, all the pieces are in place.”
Assessor’s records, zoning maps and permits — both new and old — will be linked to one parcel page.
Prospective buyers and members of the development community will be able to check on the status and history of various permits filed for any parcel in the county.
“The neat thing with this is that it is very linked to every bit of information that we have,” Shindler said.
“Potentially, the research that either the public or the staff wants to do on any project is going to be a little bit closer to the surface now.”
People will still need to apply for permits at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
A name-search function in the in-house version will be turned off in the online system for privacy reasons, Shindler said.
Public parcel numbers can be obtained from the Assessor’s Office and entered into the system.
The county last upgraded its in-house permit software in 1988.
County Administrator Jim Jones said the Assessor’s Office is no longer updating the parcel layer of assessor records in GIS, or geographic information system, because of staff reductions.
Jones asked Shindler how critical that data will be to the online permit center.
“This is important enough for DCD’s operation that we’re going to be doing something to make sure that doesn’t get too far out of whack, even if it’s not to the quality and specifications of what the assessor would have done,” Shindler said.
The system will allow the public to comment on pending planning cases directly through the website.
It also could reduce the amount of staff time used for public records requests, Shindler said.
“That has potential to save a huge amount of staff time and cost,” Commissioner Jim McEntire said.
Hearing examiner cases and appeals will be available with the click of a mouse.
“We’ve been working on this for a long time,” Roark Miller said.
“It’s taken a lot of Tom’s time and energy to get the documents affiliated to it.”
Links to the service will be available on the Clallam County homepage, www.clallam.net.
The Clallam County Permit Center was formed in June 2011, six months after Roark Miller took office as the nation’s only elected community development director.
The permit center combined the building and current planning divisions in an effort to reduce red tape for applicants.
“I think we’re going to hear nothing but real positives from the building community and probably real estate community and home owners, too, who want this information,” Commissioner Mike Chapman said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
