The city of Brookhaven will begin offering online development services to contractors and residents through Open Counter Development Services, a new portal on the city’s website, beginning May 21.
The Community Development Department will hold information sessions at on how to use Open Counter Development Services at City Hall, 4362 Peachtree Road, for developers, builders and trade contractors on Thursday, May 3 from 8:30 a.m. to 10: 30 a.m., and to residents on May 3 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The information sessions will cover how to use the portal for electronic applications and plan submittals, payments, scheduling inspections, and tracking the status of projects. Open Counter Development Services users will be required to register for a portal account.
“We’re always striving to make our processes more efficient for our residents, businesses and staff,” said Mayor John Ernst in a press release. “This is another step toward making Brookhaven more business-friendly.”
The transition day to install the new software is Friday, May 11. On that day there will be a hiatus in work on existing permits and cases and there will be no issuances of permits and certificates of occupancy. New applications, payments, and inspection requests will not be accepted. However, inspections scheduled in advance for May 11 will be performed, according to the release.
The Open Counter Development Portal will provide these services:
- Submitting plans, and documents electronically.
- Applying for building permits, land development permits, land use petitions, and administrative permits online instead of at City Hall.
- Downloading plan review comments and approved plans from the portal.
- Making fee payments online.
- Scheduling inspections from a mobile device 24/7.
- Checking permit status and inspection results from the field at the user’s convenience.
- Receiving email notifications about review comments, permit approvals, code enforcement case updates and inspection results.
- Viewing open permits, zoning cases and code enforcement cases on the portal map.
“The new Open Counter Development Portal provides greater convenience, expediency, cost savings, and better communication to applicants. We think it will be a game changer for our customers,” said Community Development Director Patrice Ruffin in a press release.
“We’re bringing modern technology to our services to make complex processes much easier and more efficient – and we’ll be open for business 24/7.”