Update concerning the UDO Remapping case (Z-27-14) – Last night City Council continued the public hearing for this case. Comments from both hearings have been documented and the public hearing was closed. City Councilors are planning to conduct a workshop on July 27 to discuss a strategy for addressing the comments. We will keep you posted as additional information becomes available.

Last Friday, I and other City staff had the pleasure of touring one of Raleigh’s new high-rise apartment buildings, Skyhouse. The view from the rooftop is really beautiful. I could see North Hills, the Crabtree Valley Mall, and Dorton Arena. Closer by, I observed the construction of several other multi-family housing projects, including the Edison and Lincoln.

As we walked around the building, Paul Kallam, our Public Works Engineering Manager, and the team of project managers reminded us that the Skyhouse project was permitted via the Express Review process. And after chatting with Celia McCoy, one of our Express Scheduling Coordinators, I learned that this has been a busy year in Express. In addition to those already mentioned, several other multi-family housing projects were recently reviewed in Express including the L Building (which we also toured a few months ago), Post Parkside at Wade, Stanhope, Crabtree Creek, Links, Gramercy, North Shore Condos, Meadow Wood, Calvary Trace, Emerson Glen, Vue, Greenway Village, and Walden Wood.

I’ve blogged about this service in the past (search “express” on the DSinsider website). It is an expedited commercial plan review in which project managers, design professionals and trade plan reviewers are present and working together.

I have spent the past fifteen years working in Planning and Inspections offices in various parts of North Carolina. One thing seems to be true no matter where I go – no two development projects are the same. They can be complex. And in many cases, project timelines allow very little room for delays.

We certainly understand this. And as discussed in last week’s post, meeting or exceeding our established benchmarks for standard plan review is important to us. But we know that many of our customers prefer to have face-to-face meetings so that issues can be ironed out quickly and efficiently.

Express Review, one of our face-to-face services, has consistently been a customer favorite. As the name implies, Express is an expedited review process that provides an opportunity for design professionals and project managers to meet face-to-face with City staff during the plan review to iron out potential roadblocks.

Until now, our Customer Service Center Manager has overseen this program. Seeing the need for a dedicated supervisor, the Development Services Department has hired its first Express Services Program Supervisor, Erin Anderson.