case study
The City of West Fargo, North Dakota, transformed its right-of-way permit management process, leveraging the city's existing geographic information system (GIS) licensing to introduce visualization of permit locations, support accurate historical information tracking, and improve efficiency for staff.
The City of West Fargo needed to upgrade the process it used to issue, manage, and track right-of-way excavation permits. The existing system—though digital, based on an online form that applicants filled out and attached as a PDF indicating the location of the proposed work—was inefficient and lacked some important capabilities. Exacerbating these challenges were the growth in the number of permit applications received, the addition of other types of permits, and the demands of supporting staff in multiple departments who needed permit information.
The most important capability missing in the existing permit system was mapping. City staff were unable to visualize where permits had been applied for and issued. Seeing the locations of active or planned construction was impossible without looking up individual records—a time-consuming task that only added to a heavy staff workload. There was also no way to filter permits to find answers efficiently—for example, to show all open permits at a given time.
The city needed a better way to track right-of-way permits, visualize permit locations, and maintain and access historic permit information.
The city's Engineering Department considered its options for the technology platform on which the brand-new permitting system would be built. After looking at a system used by other city departments that would incur additional licensing fees, Engineering Department staff discovered that the GIS software already available to them would meet their needs without any new costs.
Benji Schwartz, West Fargo's right-of-way manager, and Kayla Volness, office manager in the Engineering Department who is responsible for administration of the permitting process, began collaborating with the city's GIS team, led by its manager, Travis Genty. Together, they identified specific requirements and started paving the way to a new right-of-way permitting system.
With a demanding GIS workload and the urgent need to deploy a new permitting system the city enlisted support from its GIS partner, Pro-West & Associates. Pro-West brought additional resources and its significant experience in right-of-way projects and permitting system implementation for local governments, allowing the city to reach its goals and start benefiting promptly.
There are four permit types offered by the city:
The system developed for right-of-way permitting would include all four permit types.
Leveraging GIS tools, the city collaborated with Pro-West to build an efficient process for the application, management, and tracking of permits.
Esri's ArcGIS Survey123 was used to configure five web-based registration forms for right-of-way permits, and there is a form for each other permit type that requires contractor registration—all but the residential civil site permit—to gather information on the contractor, the proposed scope of work, and the certificate of liability insurance.
The submission of the contractor registration form triggers the next stage of the workflow. An email automatically notifies the city that a new company has applied for a contractor number. The number is sent to the company once its insurance is verified. This number allows much of the permit application form to be prefilled, expediting the application process.
Once the application is received, Schwartz can update the permit status (under review or approved, and active or inactive). Since contractors are charged per day for permits, changing the status to approved and active indicates the start of the period for which the charge applies.
Once work is complete, the city is alerted by the contractor and performs an inspection before closing the permit. This generates emails informing both the contractor and Volness of the applicable fee, which the city's Finance Department is then responsible for billing.
Beyond the permit process itself, the ArcGIS Online software-based Permit Lookup app was configured to foster transparency between government and residents, and allow city staff and the public to visualize on an interactive map the locations where right-of-way excavation (and work being performed in other permit categories) is currently underway. By clicking on the dots symbolizing those locations, users can learn more about the work being performed.
West Fargo's GIS-based permit management process has done the following to meet the city's goals:
"Managing right-of-way permits has become much easier with our new GIS-based system. We can use filters to quickly see active or inactive permits, rather than trying to organize paper documents or look up individual permits. It's made my life much easier, reducing the time I have to spend on permit management and allowing me to focus on other priorities," said Schwartz.
The start of 2023 marks the first time the city has entered a new year with each permit receiving a unique number, allowing for more efficient management. As an added benefit, permit numbers identify the year in which the permit was issued.
The value of an efficient permit management system extends beyond the Engineering Department. Upper management at the city can see at a glance where permits were issued as well as the associated costs, thanks to a set of dashboards. This marks a significant improvement from the previous process, which required manual permit-by-permit calculation. Costs can also be visualized per contractor and by type of work.
"City leaders need to be able to quickly see and understand the work being done and revenue being generated through our permit process. Having a system that allows us to automatically update dashboards that we can share without having to do time-consuming calculations is extremely valuable," said Volness.
City staff have extensive plans to build on the new right-of-way permitting system. Built on a scalable foundation of ArcGIS technology, it is ready for expansion and enhancement:
West Fargo's staff are clear about the keys to success for the city's right-of-way permitting project:
"Involving the individuals who will use the solution the most is critical. Even though I understand the GIS technology being used, I would not have been able to communicate what we needed the solution to do. I needed the GIS team's expertise in permitting to create a valuable solution," said Genty.
The new right-of-way permitting system is a huge improvement on our previous process. Adding mapping capabilities has been a game changer, and being able to use our existing investment in technology is a huge advantage. It's bringing value to the city, contractors, and citizens, and I'm looking forward to growing the solution even more over time.