Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Briefs

Building permit backlog reduced, official says

By Times Staff Writer
Published December 10, 2005

LECANTO - After many hours of overtime work, county staffers have cut through the building permit backlog.

The average turnaround time for residential single-family home permits has now reached the County Commission's goal of seven to 10 working days, director of Development Services Gary Maidhof said. He said several new staffers in the county's community development and building departments also helped decrease the permitting bottleneck.

For months, staffers have struggled to handle the permit boom, which led to delays of up to six weeks. In September, Maidhof said the backlog was so bad that he was prepared to take "radical action" and proposed closing the department's offices to the public every other Friday so the staff could focus on processing applications. But now, Maidhof said, that proposal is off the table. Instead, he said, the county is trying to improve efficiency by examining the software used to process permits.

[Last modified December 10, 2005, 00:51:18]