Development Services Review. Final Report. Zucker July 2016

Other Process Issues

Business License Reviews by Planning Division Table 12 above shows Business License Review activities from 2010 to 2015. According to the data, the average number of reviews over this period was 266 and includes license reviews for home-based, fixed and professional classifications, as well applications for construction companies, apartment complexes, hotels and change of business address requests within Morgan Hill's city limits. The Finance Department is responsible for managing and processing the Business Licensing system. Finance staff sends license applications for businesses located within the City to the Development Services Technician (DST, also known as the Planning Technician) for zoning review and approval, electronically via email. Business license applications that are outside city limits, but provide service in the City are only reviewed by Finance. The DST completes a zoning review and if appropriate, signs and prints the application form and sends to Finance for permit issuance. The DST will verify business licenses applications over the counter whenever possible, which is good. Planning staff indicated that there were discussions with Finance staff about eliminating the practice of Planning staff reviewing business licenses for Tenant Improvement (TI) projects, since planning is already conducting a conformance review for the TI as part of the building permit review and felt that a business license is redundant. In addition, Planning and Finance discussed Planning’s request to delegate Planning review authority on certain types of business licenses (e.g., home based business and certain commercial/industrial sites) to reduce Planning’s volume of reviews, however, the parties were not able to agree on these proposed review changes. We asked Finance staff why they felt the proposed changes could not be implemented. With regard to assuming some review responsibility for planning, Finance indicated that the City's Municipal Code (e.g., Section 5.04.020 C) requires Planning to review and approve business licenses prior to issuance. Additionally, Planning’s rationale for delegating certain reviews to Finance was based on the notion that Finance staff held basic knowledge of what was an acceptable business to operate home based, and certain commercial and industrial locations and could seamlessly absorb Planning’s review of these business licenses. However, Finance staff do not have formal training on the City’s Zoning Code and as such, assuming reviews would create an unacceptable risk. Further, Finance did not have adequate staffing resources (particularly with regard to back-up resources) and existing municipal code requirements required Planning Division review. Thus, Planning retained full review responsibility for reviews.

Morgan Hill, California

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