Oak Island staff urge $30,000 permitting upgrade and $575,000 UDO rewrite to speed approvals

Matt Kirkland, Oak Island’s director of development services, told the council that permitting remains a bottleneck and that the town needs dedicated investment in software and code updates to speed reviews and reduce staff time.

“Some of Edmonds certainly is functional in terms of tracking applications ... but there are a couple of deficiencies,” Kirkland said, citing largely manual permit entry, fee calculations and a lack of automated inspection notifications. He said contractors and residents often must call or email for status updates because the portal does not push notifications.

Kirkland recommended budgeting roughly $30,000 next fiscal year to acquire or add a modular permitting product that would automate inspections, fees and customer notifications. He said town staff had vetted multiple products and found off‑the‑shelf tools that could cut routine processing time and reduce staff overtime.

Beyond software, Kirkland asked the council to fund a Unified Development Ordinance rewrite to align regulations with the town’s new comprehensive land‑use plan. The UDO rewrite is estimated at about $575,000 and would be done by RFP with multiple planning‑board and public reviews, he said. Kirkland described the process as likely to take several months to a year, with opportunities for phased drafts and public input.

Kirkland also reviewed performance metrics: the department averages about seven inspections per inspector per day, roughly 17½ plan reviews per day and an overall permit-issue average of about 17 days. He and councilors emphasized that improving permit intake and plan‑review capacity—through both software and internal process changes—would shorten those timelines.

Council members asked staff to pursue negotiation with the software vendor and to bring firm costs and options back to the council; Kirkland and town administration said they would also pursue crediting or cost offsets if available through existing vendor contracts. The council did not take a final vote but signaled support to return with firm proposals during subsequent budget sessions.

The administration tied the request to a broader budget strategy that seeks to match service objectives in the comprehensive plan with investments in customer service and regulatory clarity. The UDO rewrite and permitting upgrades were presented as complementary steps—policy modernization plus the tools to implement it more efficiently.