Streamlining permitting, inspections, & licensing at the City of Florissant

Challenge: Inefficient permitting process resulted in delays, high costs, inaccuracies, and frustration for residents and applicants, as well as for city staff.

Results:

• Replaced paper forms and multiple software tools with an online portal for permitting and other Public Works functions
• Eliminated redundant data and duplicated efforts by building a customized, modern database
• Created a best-in-class customer service experience for contractors, landlords, and residents

“Streamlining the process of applying for permits, processing payments, and managing inspections into a single platform is much more effective than how we did business beforehand … We’re not just building a more secure workflow for us — we’re doing a better job of managing permitting, and we’re saving the taxpayers money.”

– Gus Macias, City of Florissant, MO

When we build a custom software application, our goal is to help your team work more efficiently, manage data more effectively, and get true long-term value for the money you spend.

We helped the City of Florissant, Missouri’s Public Works Dept. accomplish all of this with Simplicity, a custom software solution that’s evolved since 2019 to streamline many common tasks and provide a single source of truth for inspectors, law enforcement, and other city staff.

It’s also transformed how businesses and residents get important permits and services, saving time and taxpayer money while making it much easier to do business in Florissant.

Challenge: Inefficient permitting process created issues for contractors, staff, and residents

Like many municipal governments, the City of Florissant issues building permits and occupancy permits, inspects properties for safety and compliance, and manages information on floodplains and other hazards in order to keep residents safe. As the number of renters and rental properties grew in the 2010s, the city’s occupancy permitting workflow couldn’t keep up.

For one thing, Florissant’s occupancy permitting database suffered from data quality issues. The system’s design made it easy for duplicate entries to occur when people moved to a new address within the city. And because these records needed to be accessed frequently to verify residency for jobs and school enrollments, those redundant entries had started to create significant issues.

Data quality issues also impacted the city’s building permit process. “We had challenges with requests for permits not being processed correctly,” said Gus Macias, GIS technician at the City of Florissant. “In some cases, we wound up with duplicate permits in the system. Those types of redundancies were happening more and more often. It was starting to become a major source of friction.”

As we learned more about the city’s workflow, it soon became clear that Florissant’s reliance on paper application forms, invoices, receipts, and physical copies of permits was a root cause of these issues. Not only did the sheer amount of paperwork make it easier for errors to occur, but the physical handling those documents was consuming a lot of staff time. Issuing permits required both staff and applicants to walk between departments on different floors of Florissant City Hall with the necessary papers in hand.

Through talking with staff members, we also learned that scheduling and conducting property inspections was a highly manual effort, and processing the resulting physical inspection paperwork had become increasingly complex as the city grew. Building permit pricing tables and fees had to be manually tracked for each job, leading to longer wait times for residents, landlords, and contractors alike. Often, applicants had little insight into the status of their application or the next steps required.

And the complexity of the entire permitting process increased the risk that vital information — such as whether a parcel of land was located in a floodplain — could be overlooked, requiring additional time and effort when an error was discovered.

Solution: A new secure database, web portal, and custom application

The City of Florissant partnered with us to create a new paperless permitting process centered on a custom application we designed. This solution, called Simplicity, incorporates a highly secure public web portal for permit applications, a secure modern database that eliminates data redundancy issues, and a software backend that staff can access on desktop PCs and mobile devices.

The result is an intuitive system and process that is easy for applicants to use, while also reducing workloads and creating a single source of truth for staff.

Gone are the days when applicants and staff members had to walk up and down flights of steps to different departments. “Today, permit applicants can pay online, which cuts down on wait times and has also reduced the amount of foot traffic,” Gus Macias said.

“It’s a one-stop shop now. You pay, you get your permit, and you’re done,” Gus said.

Simplicity has grown to accommodate other services as well. In addition to building permits and occupancy permits, a range of other inspections and certifications can be scheduled or applied for online. The results of property inspections are fed into the city’s centralized database, which simplifies access to information and report creation.

Built on the proven Claris FileMaker platform, Simplicity ensures a high degree of data security, privacy, and regulatory compliance. Over the six years since its initial launch, FileMaker has given city leaders the flexibility to evolve their solution to fit changing staff needs and new priorities as the city has grown.

Results: A simpler process that saves taxpayers money

“Streamlining the process of applying for permits, processing payments, and managing inspections into a single platform is much more effective than how we did business beforehand,” Gus Macias said. “We’re not just building a more secure workflow for us — we’re doing a better job of managing permitting, and we’re saving the taxpayers money.”

A centralized system that gives the city more control

“The biggest ‘wow’ factor is that we’re doing so much out of one system,” Gus said. “People are surprised to hear we don’t have a separate point-of-sale system and permitting software and AGIS software. It’s seamless. The information that comes from Simplicity feeds into our GIS, and our permitting and invoicing are happening side-by-side.”

Moreover, the City of Florissant works closely with us to identify new features and capabilities that would help them. As leaders identify new processes, procedures, or technologies they want to adopt, we help adapt Simplicity to incorporate them — something most SaaS providers and commercial software developers aren’t willing or able to do.

“Other municipalities are dealing with disjointed solutions, and they’re picking and choosing what features they can get. They’re surprised when I tell them that all of this is handled within a single system and the same database. That’s powerful,” Gus said.

Fewer roadblocks for applicants and residents

For a city that’s competing to attract new investment and development, Simplicity has been praised by staff and the public for removing friction and making it easier to get construction permits, inspections, licenses, and certifications.

“There are a lot fewer barriers to entry,” Gus said. “We hear lots of feedback from contractors that our system is more user-friendly. There’s less waiting and less wondering what the next steps are once you’ve submitted an application. You know exactly what the next steps are.”

Improved access to information keeps people safe

Simplicity has additional safety benefits that go beyond the Public Works Dept. Via a custom iPad app, code enforcement staff and police can access the Simplicity database to view occupancy permitting and inspection information. “They can see who the property owners or landlords are, and the current status of permits and any violations,” Gus said. “If there’s a need for them to visit a property, they can pull it up in the mobile app and have accurate information on whether it’s owned or a rental, if it’s currently occupied, and so forth.”

Simplicity also makes it easier for code enforcement inspectors to record violations and follow up as needed. Staff say it has improved coordination and collaboration among departments.

“Anything that helps law enforcement know the ground truth when they go out on a call, or that helps them assess the situation, is going to help them keep themselves and residents safe,” Gus said.

Custom software for municipal governments

Our experience working with leaders at the City of Florissant can help your municipality, government agency, or NGO streamline processes and work more efficiently. Contact us today to learn how we can build intuitive web portals, secure databases, and modern applications that integrate with the tools you rely on and give you control over how your team serves the public.