Title
Introduction of Permit Partner System
Presenter:
Jacob Anderson, Citizen Engagement Specialist, Office of Communications
Shawna Lippert, Senior Economic Development Specialist, Economic Development Division
Body
Summary:
The City of Colorado Springs, in partnership with many local agencies, is launching a tool called Permit Partner to help citizens discover the permits, licenses, inspections, applications, and fees that may apply to them as they start a new business or plan a special event in Colorado Springs. This system will improve transparency, streamline the requirements of multiple agencies, and prepare users for the potential government processes that they will encounter.
Background:
Starting a business is not an easy task. Entrepreneurs have enough to learn while getting their operations started -- they shouldn't need to become experts in local government processes too. For entrepreneurs, Permit Partner can help future small business owners understand their upcoming needs for permits, consequences of zoning and location selection, process of inspections, estimated fees, and many of the other interactions with local government so they can focus on the work of building their business.
For special event planners, Permit Partner is now the event application process used within the City's Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Services department to track event applications, route for approvals across multiple departments, and to help the event planner understand the requirements and estimated fees for their event.
With this system, Permit Partner asks the entrepreneur user questions that they know the answers to. Permit Partner translates that information into a packet that displays the estimated permits, applications, fees, processes etc. based on their entries and directs the user how to start the appropriate interactions with local governmental agencies.
This system will be an important step in making Colorado Springs the most small b...
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