City officials soon will streamline how applications and permits are processed for residential and commercial developments.

Commissioners last week approved the purchase of cloud service software and design implementation services with Oracle Permitting and Licensing (OPAL).

“The idea here is that we’re trying to create a customer portal where all of that is in one place,” said assistant city manager Jared Wasinger. “So the members of the development community or an individual who’s trying to do a small improvement at their home, they don’t need to know where to go, they just need to go to this one place.”

The new system will include an online portal that guides users through permit requirements or obtaining licenses. Customers will also have real-time access to status of developments from pre-application to plan review and the issuance of new building permits.

Commissioner John Matta said the project fulfills one of the city’s goals of being more customer friendly.

“The big thing right now we’ve heard a lot from the development community is we’re very difficult to do business (with),” he said. “It’s confusing. You’ve got to go to a lot of different places and everything else. So this is checking off one of our big strategic things to get done.”

Commissioner Peter Oppelt said it should help create more efficiency in city government.

“I think the current development process that we don’t have is very sludgy,” he said. “I think this is just something that we really need to be doing in general, because the technology exists and people expect it of any type of customer service, and especially of their government.”

The cost for the new software is $904,000, which includes a 12-month design and configuration of the system. The city will pay $12,000 from that to cover travel expenses for six on-site visits from Oracle during the project.

The city will fund 60% of the money from the sales tax fund, 15% each from the water and wastewater funds and 10% from the stormwater fund. Software costs will total more than $665,000 through May 31, 2029, billed annually.

“We would like to come back at a different time to propose a fee associated with using this technology to help pay for that software, so that we’re not relying on the jobs fund or utilities fund,” Wasinger said.

Matta said he hopes the new system will help the city find additional areas for potential savings.

“As we go forward, we can look at those fees or how we pay for it on an ongoing basis,” he said. “I think the other thing we have to look at is what efficiencies are we going to get from a staffing standpoint in the city, because we should be able to save time and efficiencies.”

Wasinger said the city generates about $1 million annually from the different utility funds.

“So if you were trying to add a percentage to the transaction, you would need to scale that to however much you’re willing to recover 150k each year for that software,” he said.

The city is hoping to go live with the new system within the next 12 to 18 months.