Development Services Review. Final Report. Zucker July 2016

9. The Director renders a final decision following the public notice, after collaborating with the assigned project planner. 10. The assigned project planner stamps the plans and a copy is placed in the file. A Design Permit Certification (e.g., required for all buildings, structures, improvements) is issued and forwarded to the applicant through mail and/or email 11. The MSA updates Tide Mark to show the status of the application. The general flow of the Director Administrative Process is typical of those used by many of the communities we have studied, except that Director-level Administrative approval processes are typically excluded from the DRC process because they are routine and typically either exempt from CEQA or covered under another project determination. This practice is particularly common in communities that provide public notice as part of the process. To streamline this process further, the Department should consider excluding it from discussion at a formal DRC meeting, except in unusual cases. Projects would still be reviewed by selected reviewers and comments/conditions provided to the assigned project planner in a prescribed timeframe. 139. Recommendation: Director Administrative Approval applications should not be scheduled for a formal DRC meeting process, except in unusual cases, to streamline the process as described above. Our focus group and staff interviews suggested that there is a need for the DRC meeting process to be streamlined so that projects are scheduled, introduced and discussed at a single meeting. In addition, interviewees indicated that meetings need to be more structured to ensure that assigned participants routinely attend and are prepared (e.g., plans are redlined, comments and issues outlined) so that meetings are effective and applicants receive decisive feedback, which can help eliminate the need for multiple reviews. DRC meetings are managed by a Senior Planner, which is a typical arrangement we have seen in other communities. However, the assigned planner does not attend the meeting. In this study, we discuss a “True Project Manager” system, where assigned planners are empowered to act as project managers throughout the life of the project (e.g., from “cradle to grave.”). A key activity of the “True Project Manager” is for the assigned Design Review Committee (DRC)

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