EPIC News for Jacksonville’s Permitting Process
On Wednesday, Jan. 10, Mayor Donna Deegan announced the launch of Jax Enterprise Permitting, Inspections and Compliance System, or JaxEPICS, the City of Jacksonville’s (COJ) new permitting system.
Deegan made the announcement at City Hall alongside City Council President Ron Salem and COJ Chief Information Officer Wanyonyi Kendrick.
The permitting process – and the amount of time it took to move through – was a recurring complaint Deegan said she heard during her campaign and one that was again voiced during the community conversations Deegan hosted in all 19 districts shortly after becoming mayor. At the January press conference, she said overhauling the permitting process “has been a priority of my administration since day one.”
JaxEPICS was soft-launched in December.
JaxEPICS and its website (jaxepics.coj.net) was created in-house with the City’s development team, “saving millions in taxpayer dollars,” Deegan said.
“By working on JaxEPICS internally, we were able to innovate quickly and ensure needs were met for every department that was involved in the permitting process,” she added.
Through JaxEPICS, permit applications and the necessary accompanying documents can be uploaded from both computers and mobile devices, and all parties involved – applicants and city staff – receive real-time notifications as the application moves through the process, along with any requests for additional information. Business owners are also able to see where their permits are in the process.
“We believe that JaxEPICS and these process improvements will significantly reduce the average time it takes to get a permit approved over the next six months, and we’ll now be able to accurately measure that process,” she said.
Deegan said the Mayor’s Budget Review Committee had also requested 10 new, full-time positions to help further reduce the review time for permit applications.
“I know as we went through our campaigns, ‘permitting, permitting, permitting’ was always a constant comment we heard from people all over this community,” Salem said at the January announcement. “I’m excited about the process, I’m excited about the timelines, and we will work with the mayor on those budget requests to try to get this moving in the right direction.”
On Jan. 23, legislation was introduced to the city council requesting the appropriation of $512,866 from the Building Inspection 159 Fund Balance and General Fund to “various accounts within the Building Inspection Fund” to fund those positions.
According to the COJ, the city has received 2,261 building permit submissions between Dec. 18 through Jan. 24, during which time it has also completed 1,283 building permit final reviews. COJ added that it is still working through permits submitted originally through the old system, while concurrently “reviewing and issuing” permits submitted through JaxEPICS.
By Michele Leivas
Resident Community News
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