Long regarded as one of the most cumbersome and least business-friendly city departments, the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety has tried to turn that image around.
New Building and Safety chief Andrew Adelman has cut permit response times nearly in half and made several changes aimed at making it easier for people to do business with the department, like instituting a special call-in line, and consolidating permit activities onto a single floor. He has also cut down on the waiting time for building inspectors to visit sites.
“For such a long time, the permit process here was not set up for the benefit of the customer,” Adelman said. “The economic development process was slow and there were often long delays in permit approvals. The staff attitude was ‘Us vs. them.’ ”
Adelman was tapped by Mayor Richard Riordan as the first outsider to head the L.A. Building and Safety Department in 60 years. A former consulting engineer, Adelman served seven years as general manager of the San Jose Building and Safety Department, helping to turn around that department’s image and efficiency by cutting permit turnaround times by about 60 percent.
Adelman came to a department that had been in turmoil, with three general managers in the last three years. The budget also went through several rounds of cuts, particularly on the code-enforcement side. From a budget of $82 million in 1991, it has been cut to a current $71.4 million; the department has about 800 employees in 20 offices throughout the city.
So far, reaction from the building industry to Adelman’s changes has been largely positive.
“The permit process has definitely improved,” said Craig Furniss, vice president for industrial development at Lowe Enterprises, which is building a 570,000-square-foot industrial center at Alameda and Seventh streets. “We’re now on track to get our building permits within six weeks for the second phase. Last year, it took almost four months for permit approvals for the first phase.”
While Furniss credited some of the improvement to more precise drawings, he said most of it is due to a more streamlined process. “This allows us to bring our product to market sooner, which, in this strong market, is absolutely crucial,” Furniss said.
Consultant Larry Kosmont, whose firm represents several clients that have obtained city permits, said the average turnaround time for his clients has dropped from eight to 10 weeks last year to four to six weeks this year.
“They are on the right track now,” Kosmont said. “They are now competitive with the permit turnaround times in other cities, like Burbank, Long Beach and Santa Monica.”
Kosmont said L.A. remains a high-cost city for getting development approvals. Zoning and planning approvals still take much longer and cost more than in surrounding cities, he said. Part of that is due to frequently intense neighborhood opposition to major projects, in addition to the fact that builders consider the Planning Department to be slow and inefficient.
Adelman said he is working with other department heads to expand the one-stop-shop concept to other departments involved in the permit-approval process, like the Planning Department.
“It is estimated that there is about $5 billion worth of construction each year in the L.A. area,” Adelman said. “If this effort can lead to a 1 percent or 2 percent savings in construction costs, that would lead to savings of up to $100 million per year.”
