Plan Analyst User Experience: City of Centennial, Colorado

In early 2022, the City created its own Building Services team, transitioning from the previous contract permitting/plan review model to in-house. This was designed to increase oversight and influence over how building permit services were provided to the community.

As a home rule municipality, the City currently uses the 2015 International Building, Residential, and Existing Building Codes and is in the process of adopting the 2021 codes.

By the Numbers
Since establishing the in-house Building Division, with some sub-contractor support, more than 7,200 permit applications have been reviewed along with 2,700 plans comprising commercial building value of $151m and residential value of $110m. The Division answers an average of 75 – 135 calls a day.

Guiding Building Designers at the Schematic Design Phase
The City’s Chief Building Official, Joseph Montoya, finds Plan Analyst most helpful for walk-ins who are at the Schematic Design phase of a project. Architects and contractors typically have what a plan reviewer needs at this stage and often want to discuss planning, zoning, and other building related requirements.

The Centennial team appreciates the ease of using Plan Analyst. When discussing a project with a customer, they gather the project basics and enter the information into Plan Analyst, then automatically generate a project specific checklist to provide to them. This is more convenient and productive than using the usual cumbersome multi-page checklists.

Training New Building Officials
Additionally, Centennial has found Plan Analyst to be a great tool for on-the-job training for new building officials. Typically, new building officials have industry experience but not in-depth knowledge of the codes.

Plan Analyst helps fill the knowledge gap by quickly paring down the code checklist for a specific project based on construction type and other parameters. This consistent and accurate approach helps decrease the learning curve and accelerate productivity.

Beam & Column Calculator
Centennial Building Division staff also use the Plan Analyst Beam & Column Calculator. They find it particularly useful for load calculations when reviewing deck designs.