Our department (Town of Shrewsbury) is trying to streamline the application process, putting all permit applications and payments online. I would greatly appreciate any feedback, especially information pertaining to the start up process and formatting. - Thank you
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Sean,
My community, North Andover, uses VP for online building permits and the like, but we've yet to transition to it for our FD permits. It was in discussions w/ our FD administration and IT dept prior to the CoVid crisis, so it likely be back on the table whenever this crisis abates. I'd be interested in what ideas you come up with and/or you end up doing. I would be happy to provide you with our plans as well, whenever they are established. Feel free to email me if you wish mbeirne@northandoverma.gov
Thank you for your reply, I will keep you posted if I do come by any relevant information. I spoke with several departments and it seems everyone is thinking about making the move but at a stand still due to various reasons. - Captain Lawlor
We are in the process of going that way. Hopefully going live in the next couple months. Be happy to discuss what we are looking at and hear your thoughts. rnelson@ci.reading.ma.us
Rick, Thank you for your response. I will be calling you soon with questions regarding the process. - Captain Lawlor
Greenfield has also begun the process of online permitting. The Building Dept. is pushing hard for the change. I will be involved in the start up process; I will share if I find any helpful information.
Hi Dan, Thank you for your response, please keep me posted. - Captain Lawlor
We use VP in Westwood for all of our plans review. Works really well. We did burn permits in 2020 via VP as as "trial" and it worked good. Like North Andover, we are planning to move everything incl. payments to VP ---but we aren't there yet. cpierce@townhall.westwood.ma.us
Hi Chris, Thank you for your response. I am going to contact you in regards to the online burn permit process and how you set it up. - Captain Lawlor
Our building and health departments are using it for all their permitting. we are working toward transitioning over to it. Currently we have dumpster permits as part of the building permit package. This has been working out well. We've seen an increase in our numbers so it seems we are picking up permits that were sliding through the cracks before as we have to sign off on every building permit online before it can move forward.
Hi Kevin,
Thank you for your reply, I feel that is why a lot of towns are switching to online permitting. The convenience, data storage and cutting down counter time.
Does your department have a way separate the transactions for record keeping?
North Attleboro started using viewpoint in February. The entire town has begun to use it. It seems to be well. We use it for fire prevention with the Smoke/CO, Oil burner, LP inspections as well as plan reviews and General Permits. We are trying to use it for everything. Ive looked at it and it can be used for a wide amount of things. We are catching up on all the permits in town, IE- gas stations and storage tanks for flammables and i found that you can have them set to expire and notify the people at whatever time you chose, so they will be notified to renew it. I found that out after we started.
I did find that you have to create the forms, and sort of tailor them to your dept needs. The generic ones are not exactly what we have needed. I'm not sure if anyone else has found this or not.
Overall i am very happy with it. It makes it a lot easier so that all items associated with a certain address are all tied into that. No more paper, and everything is online. It is all track-able and viewed by any department. If you have any other questions please let me know. Thank you.. jflynn@nattleboro.com - Captain Flynn
Hi Joe,
Thank you for your reply, its evident that your department is ahead of the game. I would love to discuss the process for developing the permits. I will email you with my questions, thank you again.
We're meeting this morning w/ our IT dept and are fast approaching FD online permitting through VP. I forwarded the most common standard SFMO permits [FP-006, FP-007C, FP-0056, FP-292 etc.] to IT so they could build the framework. It'll be interesting to see what they've developed. I believe IT has set up separate links for each type of permit [sprinkler or fire alarm impairments, 26F inspections, oil burning equipment, UST removals etc.] Curious how others went about this part of the process. Likewise, I'd be happy to share my limited experience with others. Great topic, thanks for all the input.
Hi Kevin,
This is exactly why I began this post, I want to develop the framework exactly how the department needs it. Then we can be prepared for IT to do their part and not be waiting around.
Our IT dept. has been at it for for 2 years now. Wasn't as simple tying it in with all the departments as they thought it was going to be. It will be worth it in the long run.