Project Description:

The County has had continual difficulty hiring and retaining planning staff spanning a number of years. While there was hesitation in partnering with a consultant to supplement county staff, pressures increased in 2022 to a point where the County released an RFP seeking development review support. After an evaluation process, CPS was chosen as the team to help the County dig out of a backlog of applications. Since the County only sought virtual support services, the application types passed on to our team were limited to those that did not require hearings or significant site improvements which may require site visits.

Even with this limited role, CPS planners were able to make meaningful progress in the backlog within a matter of weeks of executing the contract. Within a matter of months, the back log was eliminated with the support of CPS. By shifting the less complex projects and applications to CPS, staff time was freed up to be able to focus on the more complex and politically sensitive applications and application types.

This partnership has proven beneficial to the County because of the team of planners that can dedicate their time to reviewing these land use applications on behalf of the County. With the first year of the contract behind us, the County is looking for ways to engage the CPS team on more application types. Even though CPS doesn’t have a local office, this partnership has proven that the CPS team can work efficiently and effectively in a remote environment.