City Permitting: Accelerating Permit Performance
A fast-growing coastal city was seeing escalating dissatisfaction from residents, contractors and local businesses with its permitting process. Moran partnered with senior leadership, the newly appointed Building Director and permitting-connected departments to diagnose root causes and implement lasting improvements.
Let’s Talk About Your ChallengeThis was not a technology initiative. It was a service redesign grounded in people, process, coordination and culture.
What the city was facing
City leadership recognized that improving permitting performance was essential to community growth, business vitality and public confidence.
What Moran did
Listened first
Listening sessions with residents, elected officials, business users and frontline staff.
Mapped the work
End-to-end workflow mapping across all permit types.
Broke down silos
Cross-department improvement teams across Building, Planning, Fire, Public Works and partner departments.
Set shared standards
Trained permitting and customer-facing staff on shared service standards.
Clarified technology roles
Partnered with IT to clarify roles, data ownership and technology use.
Simplified the flow
Segmented permit categories so faster-moving work moves faster and complexity drops.
Made performance visible
Clear service expectations, turnaround targets and a reporting cadence.
Opened communication
Improved communication and transparency with the community.
Measurable, city-wide improvement
“The reduction in complaints was like night and day.”
City leadership · City GovernmentFix the process your customers feel
Talk with Moran about improving a complex, multi-department service process.
Let’s Talk About Your Challenge