Accela Insights Blog

In the city offices of Tacoma, Washington, hearing the community is all about “hearing the customer.” Speed, accessibility, efficiency, transparency, convenience, these hallmarks of customer service are part of the city’s larger strategy to engage residents and drive community development. Jennifer Ward, Tacoma’s management analyst, said digital tools are essential in this effort as regulations change to adapt to new businesses, technologies and shifts in citizen expectations. Evidence of this can be seen in Tacoma’s recent modernization effort to replace and upgrade its permitting tool. Ward said Tacoma’s Planning and Development Services had struggled with an older enterprise-wide system that had been re-purposed to handle permit applications…. Continue reading

Tags: Citizen Engagement, citizen experience

PHOTO: The U.S. Coast Guard conducts an overflight assessment of Punta Gorda in Charlotte County, Florida in the wake of Hurricane Irma in September 2017. On the morning of September 10, 2017, Hurricane Irma hit land, ripping off roofs, flooding coastal cities, and amassing $50 billion in damages. Yet, despite the destruction and devastation, officials in Charlotte County, Florida, showed they had the people, plan and tools to ensure residents had immediate support to begin the recovery. With a unique geography, that includes 858 square miles of Florida’s gulf coast, Charlotte is home to both excellent beaches and outdoor activities, as well as environmental challenges that include a large flood plain and hurricane prone areas…. Continue reading

Tags: Planning, Building, public safety, Planning and building, hurricane irma

The National League of Cities and Accela’s #LoveMyCity campaign offers local leaders, citizens and changemakers best practices, policy resources and a digital toolkit to drive modern, citizen-centric services

In a world rife with conflict, filled with political discord and debate, our neighborhoods and communities have always stood as a unifying force, acting as bridges to join people together in common goals, ideals and challenges. That constant — yet often unspoken — power is what Gary, Indiana Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson calls love.“In this day and age, we spend a lot of time talking about our differences, our divisions and our struggles. But the reality is,… Continue reading

Tags: National League of Cities, nlc, Love My City, LoveMyCity

Whether travelers stay at a seaside cottage in the Florida Keyes, an hacienda in Arizona, or go all out and splurge on a Park Avenue Penthouse in New York, summer’s short-term rental boom is here and cities should prepare. New data from Second Measure, a company specializing in consumer spending research, shows residents are spending more on short-term rental services like Airbnb than they have in the industry’s history, shaking up the top hotel giants, and grabbing more market share of summer’s high-volume hotel and tourism market. The growth of this emerging industry offers governments new opportunities to collect, or recapture, tax revenues through digital regulatory tools and to nurture economic development in their communities…. Continue reading

Tags: Short-Term Rentals, STR, summer

In this Esri Story Map, Esri shows where the housing prices have grown the most unaffordable for residents in the San Francisco Bay Area. State and local governments are using GIS mapping like this to inform policy and improve services. Cities are growing denser with residents, city services are in high demand, and all while leaders struggle to balance tight budgets and limited resources. This is the common plight of many state and local governments throughout the U.S. as they seek for faster, more efficient ways to serve their communities.As a response to these challenges, departments and agencies of all types are learning about the power of Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping to get a clearer picture of operations and to deliver services more efficiently…. Continue reading

Tags: Esri, GIS, Esri GIS, Accela mobile, Mapping, field inspections

Grand Rapids, Michigan, Development Center Manager Louis Canfield talks about how the city leverages effective digital tools to meet citizen expectations

Today Grand Rapids, Michigan, is all about fast and efficient service. It’s a city that prides itself on making sure its residents have what they need, when they need it. But ask the city’s Development Center Manager Louis Canfield how Grand Rapids does this and he’ll tell you it’s a combination of the having the right service strategy and right technology to get the job done. In 2009, Grand Rapids selected Accela to support its Neighborhood Improvement, Fire, Planning, Environmental Services, and Engineering departments through the Accela Civic Platform…. Continue reading

Take this assessment to see if your health department has the right tools to confront tomorrow’s environmental health challenges

When it comes to community health issues, cities seek support from their local health department first. Food poisoning, pest infestations, water contamination, hazardous material spills, these are just a few critical challenges departments confront daily. The right tools are essential to respond to these issues. Health departments need tools that ensure they can deliver frequent field inspections, fast permitting transactions, clear reports and provide an easy and accessible way for residents to submit information and make requests. In the Accela Environmental Health Assessment you can answer a set of simple questions to gauge your environmental health readiness based on your current tools and processes…. Continue reading

Tags: environmental health, environmental health assessment, EH

Like test driving a car along a pre-approved route or laying on a mattress under the fluorescent lights of a showroom, we are sometimes expected to make critically important recommendations with just a sliver of information. This experience can also occur in your office when your team joins a meeting in which a potential vendor demonstrates (demos) its software. Eventually you’re asked, “What did you think?” I’ve attended hundreds of such meetings and for the most part, all participants are keenly interested in matching a health department’s needs to the product’s capabilities. The demo is a “good one” when the features match your needs and interest is raised…. Continue reading

Tags: environmental health, JEH, NEHA, National Environme

We look at the tools and agile planning strategies that will streamline the next generation of planning, zoning, and code enforcement processes

Editors Note: This blog is based off of the Accela white paper 8 Trends Transforming Community Planning. The world’s population is projected to increase from 7.6 billion to 9.8 billion by 2050, and with this growth, the characteristics and demands of the population are changing. To scale and enhance services planners must be innovative, searching out new tools, and new ways to solve problems. Cities are getting denser and larger, life expectancies are longer, increasing demand for nearby medical and care services,… Continue reading

Tags: Planning

Accela celebrates week five of Building Safety Month by spotlighting effective digital tools that are transforming how cities adapt to the short-term rental industry

Short-term rentals (STR) have changed how we think about housing and travel. They reshaped the hotel and tourism industry, made travel more affordable and created new opportunities for homeowners to generate extra income. Yet with this change, cities are challenged to adapt regulations to ensure this new industry is fairly taxed and operates safely.As part of week five in the International Code Council’s Building Safety Month, that supports the theme “Innovations in Building Safety,” Accela is here to offer advice and tools for STR regulation…. Continue reading

Tags: Short-Term Rentals, Building Safety Month, STR, Airbnb