In an effort to save the city government and Oahu residents time and money, Honolulu will soon accept and store construction plans electronically, Mayor Peter Carlisle announced Tuesday.
"Architects, engineers, planners and the public will no longer have to drive to the city permit counter during business hours with rolls and rolls of construction drawings in tow," Carlisle said at a news conference. "At their convenience, they can connect to the department of permitting and planning website and upload their plans."
During fiscal year 2012 the city Department of Planning and Permitting approved roughly 22,000 permits — about a 30 percent increase from the previous year, Director David Tanoue said.
The city has been testing the program, called ePlans, with a handful of architectural firms for the past few weeks, but Tanoue said it needs additional applicants interested in trying it out before the system goes islandwide sometime around September.
Ron Loback, president and CEO of Avolve Software, said Honolulu is among the five or six biggest cities of about 70 that have hired his Arizona-based company for assistance with electronic construction plan reviewing. Chicago, Atlanta and Salt Lake City are among the other cities using it.
The move to an electronic permit processing, which cost the city $350,000 to set up and operate for two years, will decrease gasoline use as well as paper consumption and printing and storage costs, Carlisle said.
Planning and Permitting staff will be able to mark up and comment directly onto the electronic files — speeding up and improving the efficiency of the department’s permit review process — and the review status will be available online and through a mobile application.
Chris Hong, an architect with Group 70 International, said his company has had employees wait in line at the city’s permitting counter for up to six hours to be able to submit a project for review. Group 70 International is participating in the trial period but has not reached the review stage.
Hong said that in addition to time, the new program can save firms up to $600 in printing costs for a small project and thousands of dollars on a large one.
"The potential is huge," he said.
Applicants or firms interested in learning more about ePlans can email the department at info@honoluludpp.org.
