San Francisco Cuts Permit Reviews to Just 5 Days
City and County of San Francisco
The City and County of San Francisco Permit Center oversees housing permit approvals across the city. As housing demand increased and new legislation mandated accelerated permit reviews, the city sought a modern solution to improve efficiency, transparency, and citizen experience.
Industry
Public Sector
Challenge
California Assembly Bill 1114 imposed strict permit review deadlines on a historically manual, fragmented process, leaving under 45 days to comply.
Results
A fully digital permit completeness workflow, delivered in 45 days, cut reviews to an average of five days and beat the state requirement by ten.
Solutions
Outcomes
5 days
Average permit completeness review time
10 days
Faster than the state-required timeline
45 days
To design and deploy the digital workflow
60%
Application completeness rate achieved
Overview
When California Assembly Bill 1114 introduced strict permit review deadlines, the City and County of San Francisco faced an aggressive timeline to modernize a historically manual and fragmented process. DataBank partnered with the Permit Center to design and implement a fully digital permit completeness workflow in just 45 days, helping the city achieve compliance while dramatically improving review speed and citizen service.
Challenges
New state legislation required accelerated permit review timelines
Less than 45 days were available to design and deploy a new process
Manual, siloed reviews created inefficiencies and limited visibility
There was no structured data or performance tracking for permit reviews
Applicants experienced confusing, inconsistent review processes
Implementation
Assess Regulatory Requirements
DataBank collaborated with city stakeholders to understand Assembly Bill 1114 mandates and define workflow requirements, review timelines, and compliance objectives.
Design Digital Workflow
The team developed a new permit completeness process within OnBase, replacing manual review steps with standardized digital workflows and routing rules.
Enable Department Collaboration
Applications were automatically routed for concurrent review across as many as ten departments, reducing bottlenecks and improving coordination.
Automate Applicant Communication
Upon completion of reviews, OnBase automatically generated and delivered completeness letters containing consolidated review findings.
Launch and Optimize
The solution was successfully deployed by the January 1 deadline, followed by rapid enhancements based on stakeholder feedback during the first months of operation.
Key Takeaways
A 45-day build met a statutory deadline that could not move, and gave applicants a review time they can plan around.
Concurrent Review
Up to 10 departments review a single application at the same time
Deadline Met
Live by the January 1 statutory deadline set by Assembly Bill 1114
Predictable For Applicants
Completeness letters generated and delivered automatically with consolidated findings
Built On Structured Data
Review performance is now tracked and reported rather than estimated
Results
Client Experience
“The ambitious timeline for our project didn’t faze our partners at DataBank. They collaborated with us to deliver a strong product on Jan. 1 and rapid follow-up releases in response to stakeholder feedback in January and February. DataBank’s partnership was absolutely integral to our success.”
Mandy Johnson
Strategic Programs Manager, City and County of San Francisco
View Full Case Study
Learn how the City and County of San Francisco partnered with DataBank to address a critical challenge and deliver measurable results. This case study provides a clear overview of the problem, the solution, and result.
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