At a Glance
| Agency | City of Mesa, Development Services Department |
| Location | Mesa, Arizona |
| Solution | Accela Civic Platform, Building and Planning |
| Key Initiative | Citywide transition to fully paperless permitting, licensing |
| Review Turnaround Results |
10 business days for residential first review, 18 business days for commercial first review, with a paid 10 business day expedited option for commercial applicants |
Most agencies phase in a change this big. In 2017, the City of Mesa’s Development Services Department did not. The city eliminated paper from permitting, planning, and licensing all at once, with no parallel paper process and no fallback plan.
The challenge
Mesa’s paper-based system asked a lot of the people who depended on it. Submitters were required to provide four full sets of printed plans per project, a real cost for large commercial developments. Reviews moved through the city one physical set of documents at a time, with limited visibility for applicants into where a project actually stood.
The case for change came from multiple directions. Developers and contractors wanted relief from the printing burden. Going paperless aligned with the mayor’s climate action priorities. The city needed a way to give residents, contractors, and architects access to permitting data without a trip to city hall. None of that made the transition easy. Digital transformation on this scale meant retraining habits across an entire development community at once, and Mesa’s team knew that adoption, not just go-live, would determine whether the move actually worked.
The solution
Mesa’s Development Services Department and its internal IT team worked as partners throughout the transition rather than treating it as a technology handoff. The city ran an RFP process starting in 2014, selected Accela, and used development advisory forums to explain the coming change and hear concerns directly from the contractors and developers who would live with it.
Mesa’s technology team also built internal capacity to keep pace with the platform. The team operates with the discipline of a software engineering group, using version control, change management, and full testing cycles for configuration changes. That capability lets the city respond to new state mandates and local ordinances using Accela’s configuration tools directly, rather than waiting on outside development resources.
The benefits
Consolidated right of way coordination: Mesa’s fiber buildout generates high volumes of inspection requests from utility and telecom providers. Connecting Accela’s API to SMS and IVR technology let the city automate inspection request creation and assignment, replacing a process that previously required direct staff handling for every request.
Automated utility clearances: Staff previously ran manual daily reports and followed up individually with utility companies to confirm clearance information. Automated workflows removed that manual back and forth.
Leadership-ready reporting: Weekly reports show completed reviews, where each review stands in its lifecycle, and any missed turnaround times along with associated refund costs. That gives department leadership real data to bring into staffing conversations with city management and council, rather than anecdotal pressure alone.
Citizen and developer transparency: Contractors, architects, and residents can access permitting data and check project status without visiting city hall, and can apply for permits at any time.
The results
Mesa continues to meet its legislated review windows for both residential and commercial projects, and the paid expedited review option sees regular use from the development community. Nearly a decade after go-live, the city’s Development Services team points to adoption, not just process speed, as the real measure of success. As Heather Basford of Mesa’s Development Services Department put it, the transition would not have worked without support from the city manager’s office and elected officials from the very start.
Samuel Small, Senior Software Engineer for the City of Mesa, is candid that the rollout was never going to be perfectly smooth. His advice to other agencies considering a similar move: expect friction, treat it as normal, and keep driving the project forward instead of stopping to patch every issue as it surfaces.
Interested in learning more?
To learn more about how the Accela Civic Platform can help your agency modernize permitting and build lasting trust with your community, book a demo today.
