JACKSONVILLE, Fla — The City of Jacksonville launched a new web system it hopes will reduce the time it takes businesses and residents to get a permit on Wednesday.
In Jacksonville, obtaining a permit can be a headache.
On paper, the city has reported approval for a commercial permit takes 30 days on average.
But that’s not always the case.
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In December of 2022, we spoke with Roxanne Harris, co-owner of Curl Up and Dye salon in Mandarin.
She waited more than four months to obtain a permit to fix a hole in her business that was left behind after a customer crashed into the building.
“Everything through the city is waiting on permits. It’s been 4 months now and it’s just hard to understand why it takes 4 months to get your business back to where it was,” said Harris at the time.
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Now, Mayor Donna Deegan has announced the rollout of a new permit application system she hopes will streamline the process and help Jacksonville’s rapid development move full steam ahead without costly delays.
“Time is money in business and the truth is those delays have real life impacts on small businesses that drive most of our local economy,” said Deegan.
The new system dubbed “JAXEPICS” aims to simplify the application process by laying out the required documentation.
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It also prevents applicants from submitting their proposals until all the documentation needed has been submitted to help reduce the need for resubmissions.
The goal is to get wait times for commercial permits down to 20 days on average.
Deegan said the new system will also make it easier for businesses to track the status of their applications and for the city to track where bottlenecks occur to help identify where improvements can be made going forward.
“The issues that we have with permitting, during the campaign trail, that was the biggest concern for all of the constituents and I’m glad we’re addressing that now,” said Councilmember Raul Arias (R-District 11).
Arias runs a local restaurant and understands the city’s permitting woes firsthand.
During the pandemic he said he waited 11 months for an awning permit.
Arias said he hopes the new system will improve things but wants to ensure the city accurately tracks the total length of permit application wait times when resubmissions are necessary.
“They’re saying ten days, when really, it’s probably taking another 30 days. You’re looking at 60 days now. Meanwhile the clock is ticking and the landlord has already started charging for the rents,” said Arias.
Deegan is also planning to ask the council to fund ten new employees within the planning department to help bolster the manpower needed to keep up with permit applications, which have increased by nearly 25 percent over the past five years.
You can check out the new permitting website HERE.
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