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The city of Fort Worth is working with the Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth and a group of commercial developers and professionals to discuss improvements to the city’s development process.
“When it comes to measuring, discussing and assisting in the implementation of improvements to the city's development process, the Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth has been a strong partner,” said D.J. Harrell, development services director, in a statement. “We are looking forward to the recommendations and improvements that will come out of this collaboration.”
Part of the evaluation process was the development of a special analysis that included key items, among them a survey and organizational chart of all city departments involved in the development process. Also included in the analysis were key recommendations for improvements.
The survey was open to development professionals with significant experience developing both inside and outside Fort Worth, and it highlighted three recommendations:
- Expand the overwhelmingly positive trajectory in the Development Services Department to all development-related departments.
- Instill a culture of problem solving across all departments, down to the customer interface level, as is common in many cities.
- Resolve the city’s internal process conflicts between departments and remove the expectation that the customer will find a way to resolve them on their own.
It is often assumed that the Development Services Department is in charge of the commercial development process in Fort Worth. Actually, there are nine separate city departments involved:
- Development Services
- Water
- Neighborhood Services
- Park & Recreation
- Code Compliance
- Fire
- Transportation & Public Works
- Planning
- Legal
Discussions between REC and the city’s Development Services Department showcased the marked improvements made over the last several years. In addition, the department’s Business Process Improvements and Lean Six Sigma Process Improvements have begun bearing fruit.
A decentralized environment at the city can sometimes limit the effectiveness of these efforts.
To further improve the development experience and atmosphere for both customers and city staff, the analysis recommends several key items, including:
- Department silos need to come down, and the idea of the one-stop shop goes up.
- All city employees working on development-related items should be located in the same vicinity.
- Schedule continuous improvement meetings with all pertinent city staff to review workflows and resolve problems as a team.
- Add more proven customer service training on an annual basis, for city staff to aid in ordinance enforcement.
- A semiannual discussion, hosted by the city manager for city staff involved in the development process and its outside stakeholders and alliance partners, to discuss and resolve issues.
- Invest in retaining city employees to ensure the highest-performing staff are supported and promoted.
View the complete Special Analysis Report.
City staff will work with City Council, the Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth, the Development Advisory Committee, all Fort Worth chambers of commerce, the Greater Fort Worth Builders Association, the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors and other stakeholders in the commercial development community to incorporate the recommendations into the broad strategies already put in place around permits, licensing and zoning.
Some of these include creating a team within Development Services focused on business process improvements, enhanced project facilitation services, the city’s Permit Assist Tool and other resources that are already available to the public.
“The city is extremely appreciative of the assistance and collaborative nature of the work the Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth has done,” Harrell said. “Their continued support has led to numerous city development process improvements and the proven overall upward trajectory for streamlining development in Fort Worth.”