Nine NC cities benchmark best practices for the development review process

 

Approving or denying building permits and other land-use applications is an important role of local governments but one that often draws criticism from developers and citizens alike.  A team of planning and development review professionals from nine North Carolina municipalities—Asheville, Cary, Concord, Durham, High Point, Matthews, Salisbury, Wilson, and Winston-Salem—teamed up with researchers from UNC's School of Government to benchmark with three national leaders in development review and discovered 78 distinctive practices accounting for the leaders' success.

This benchmarking project not only produced helpful advice for improving development review processes but also demonstrated the value to local governments of a type of benchmarking fairly common in the private sector but rarely used in the public sector. A new book co-published by the School of Government and the Alliance for Innovation focuses on this benchmarking project and identifies an array of proven practices for bringing greater fairness, thoroughness, and speed to the development review process.

 

You may purchase a hard copy through the link below.
http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.433425/it.A/id.1529/.f

 

Publication information:

Title: Development Review in Local Government: Benchmarking Best Practices , 2008

Authors: David Ammons, Ryan Ewalt, & Ryan Davidson

No. of pages: 117

Order number: 2008.17

Price for printed version: $50.00, plus 6.75% tax for NC residents