City plans move to GovWell online permitting, cites AI-assisted plan review and faster processing

Planning & Protective Services staff (speaker 10) told the committee the city is moving to GovWell software for online permitting, contractor and business licensing, payments, and integrated plan review. Staff said the system will provide a single portal for permitting and include features to block permit submissions until business licenses are current.

"Part of the software actually is, an AI initial plan review," the planning director said, explaining that the tool will perform a preliminary plan assessment and flag code ordinance mismatches prior to formal staff review. Staff said the new workflow will reduce manual exchanges, allow comments directly on digital plans, and provide applicants and contractors with better transparency about the status of their submissions. The committee also discussed a separate question about recording committee meetings; staff cited a previous estimate near $250,000 for hardware and recurring operating costs and agreed to explore lower-cost, cloud-based alternatives and report back.

Councilors expressed broad support for online permitting but asked for further detail on implementation costs, training and any recurring subscription expenses. Staff said subscription and maintenance figures are included in department line items and that some costs were moved between departmental budgets during the packet reconciliation.