Memphis and Shelby County’s Division of Planning and Development transformed their permitting process through the Develop 901 initiative, reducing commercial plan review times from 30-50 days to just 6.5 days, an 87% improvement.
By replacing a 100% paper-based system with Accela’s digital platform, the jurisdiction unified multiple regulatory agencies, established data-driven accountability, and created transparency for staff, businesses, and residents.
Led by Deputy Director Nidia Logan-Robinson, the initiative demonstrates how strategic governance, cultural change management, and technology adoption can drive measurable economic development outcomes.
The Challenge: A Fragmented System Holding Back Growth
When Memphis launched its first comprehensive plan in 40 years, city leaders faced a harsh reality: their development review process was antiquated, fragmented, and slow. The entirely paper-based system forced applicants to navigate manual handoffs between agencies, with plan reviews regularly taking 30 to 50 days, and that was just for plan review, not the full end-to-end permit issuance.
“We had miscommunication among agencies and among customers,” recalls Nidia Logan Robinson, Deputy Director of the Division of Planning and Development. The lack of transparency meant businesses couldn’t track their projects, staff struggled to coordinate across departments, and small and mid-size builders lacked the resources to navigate the complexity that larger developers could manage.
For a city planning for 30 years of investment and development, the status quo posed an economic development barrier.
The Solution: Develop 901 and Strategic Digital Transformation
Born during the comprehensive planning process, Develop 901 became the city and county’s answer to rationalizing development. The initiative’s central purpose: create ultimate transparency for development partners, staff, and customers through a unified digital platform powered by Accela.
But technology alone wouldn’t solve the challenge. Memphis and Shelby County took a strategic approach built on three pillars:
- Governance Structure: A governance committee brought together leaders and decision makers from key regulatory agencies. “This committee guided the implementation, guided the design of the shared platform during implementation, but it was the foundation for setting shared goals, refining processes, and identifying common challenges and bottlenecks,” Robinson explains. Regular meetings kept partners aligned and empowered to solve problems collaboratively.
- Data-Driven Accountability: Using Accela’s replicated database, Memphis gained access to real-time insights from 70,000 permits and 90,000 inspections. This data powers multiple tools: a public-facing map that answers “what’s happening in my neighborhood?” (consistently among the top 10 clicked tools on their website), internal dashboards that enable monthly service improvement meetings, and the ability to quickly respond to policy changes like new state legislation requiring fee justification. “The data has been critical,” Robinson notes. “That is really the lifeblood of the work that we’re doing.”
- Cultural Change Management: Beyond the governance committee, Memphis established user groups where staff could bring ideas and challenges. “Our staff are empowered to bring their ideas, their challenges to those groups to share and discuss,” says Robinson. The strategy emphasized constant clear communication, early involvement of both customers and regulatory partners, and connecting the work to a bigger vision: creating a development ecosystem that works for everyone and makes Memphis attractive for business investment.
The Results: Speed, Efficiency, and Economic Development
The transformation delivered dramatic improvements:
- Commercial projects: Plan review times dropped to an average of 6.5 days, with end-to-end permit issuance in 34 days—a massive reduction from the previous 30-50 day review times alone.
- Residential projects: Plan reviews now average 4 days, with full permit issuance in 14 days.
- Consistent performance: The jurisdiction consistently meets its 10-day goal for plan review.
When the mayor issued a “year of yes” challenge with a goal of 30-day building permit issuance, the data and infrastructure were already in place to make it achievable. “That’s a goal that we think we can meet,” Robinson says confidently.
Key Lessons for Other Jurisdictions
For jurisdictions considering a similar transformation, Robinson offers clear guidance:
- Change management is critical: “Change management is so important in building and maintaining the trust that you will need to do this kind of work for a long time,” Robinson emphasizes. Involve customers and regulatory partners early and consistently throughout the process.
- Empower your staff: User groups and regular forums give staff ownership over improvements and help surface the real operational challenges that need addressing.
- Communicate constantly and clearly: Keep everyone aware, aligned, and realigned with shared goals. Help them understand not just what you’re doing, but why.
- Connect to big audacious goals: “This is about overall growth and development in the city and the county that we all live, work in and love,” Robinson explains. “We’re trying to create a development ecosystem that works for all parties involved.” That means leveling the playing field for small and mid-size builders, attracting national companies, and making Memphis a place where businesses want to invest and build.
The Bottom Line
Memphis and Shelby County’s story demonstrates what’s possible when jurisdictions combine clear strategy, effective governance, cultural commitment, and the right technology platform. By focusing on transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement, they’ve reduced review times by 87% and created a competitive advantage that makes their region more attractive for economic development and easier for all builders to navigate.
As Robinson puts it: “Doing the right things for the right reasons.”
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Dive deeper into Memphis and Shelby County’s transformation journey, and read the FAQ and full transcript below to discover the specific strategies, challenges, and solutions that made their success possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the biggest challenge Memphis faced before Develop 901?
Memphis operated with a 100% paper-based permitting process that was fragmented across multiple agencies. This resulted in 30-50 day review times, manual handoffs, miscommunication between departments, and a lack of transparency for applicants trying to track their projects.
How did Memphis reduce permit review times by 87%?
The jurisdiction implemented the Develop 901 initiative, which combined three key strategies: establishing a governance committee to align regulatory agencies, leveraging Accela’s digital platform and replicated database for data-driven decision making, and implementing comprehensive change management to transform organizational culture. This reduced commercial plan review from 30-50 days to 6.5 days.
What role does data play in Memphis’s permitting improvement?
Data from Accela’s replicated database is “the lifeblood” of Memphis’s work, according to Deputy Director Robinson. It powers a public-facing map showing active permits (one of the top 10 most-used tools on their website), enables monthly service improvement meetings with performance dashboards, and allows rapid response to policy changes like state fee justification requirements. The jurisdiction tracks 70,000 permits and 90,000 inspections through the platform.
What is the governance committee and why was it important?
The governance committee brought together leaders and decision makers from key regulatory agencies for regular meetings. It served as the foundation for setting shared goals, guiding the Accela platform implementation and design, refining processes across departments, and identifying common challenges and bottlenecks in workflows. This structure was critical for achieving cross-departmental coordination and buy-in.
How did Memphis manage cultural change during digital transformation?
Memphis established user groups where staff could bring ideas and challenges, involved customers and regulatory partners early and consistently, maintained constant clear communication about goals and progress, and connected the work to larger economic development outcomes that resonated with all stakeholders. As Robinson notes, change management was essential for “building and maintaining the trust” needed for long-term transformation.
What are the current performance metrics for Memphis permitting?
As of the interview, Memphis achieved: Commercial projects – 6.5 day average plan review, 34 days end-to-end from submission to issuance; Residential projects – 4 day average plan review, 14 days from submission to issuance. The jurisdiction consistently meets its 10-day plan review goal and is working toward a mayoral challenge of 30-day total building permit issuance.
What technology platform does Memphis use for permitting?
Memphis and Shelby County use the Accela digital permitting platform, which includes a replicated database for data access and analytics. The platform replaced their entirely paper-based process and now serves as the central hub for multiple regulatory agencies to coordinate reviews, inspections, and approvals.
How does Develop 901 support small and mid-size builders?
By creating a rational, transparent development process that’s easy to navigate, Develop 901 levels the playing field. As Robinson explains, “The big developers will always have the resources to navigate complexity, but the smaller builders and developers may not have that option.” The streamlined digital process ensures all builders can efficiently move projects forward, regardless of their size or resources.
What is Memphis’s ‘Year of Yes’ initiative?
The mayor issued a challenge to achieve 30-day building permit issuance as part of a “year of yes” initiative. This ambitious goal builds on the infrastructure and data systems already established through Develop 901, and Robinson indicates the jurisdiction believes it can meet this target through continued process improvement.
Full Episode Transcript
(00:00): Welcome to Civic Innovators, where we explore how government leaders transform complex systems into better experiences for residents and businesses Today, Noam Reiner, CEO of Accela, and Joe Morris, chief Innovation Officer at Government Technology. Sit down with Nidia Logan Robinson, deputy Director for the Division of Planning and Development in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee, a joint city county organization that is connecting departments, modernizing development services, and making it easier to do business across the region. We asked how did Memphis and Shelby Counties develop 9 0 1 initiative, reduce review times while connecting departments and making development easier for staff, citizens and businesses.
Noam Reininger (00:42): Welcome to the Civic Innovators Podcast. This is where we explore how government leaders are transforming services and getting more civic velocity. I’m Noam Reininger, the CEO of Accela,
Joe Morris (00:57): And I’m Joe Morris, chief Innovation Officer with government technology in E Republic. Today we’re actually headed to Memphis and Shelby County to look at their development 9 0 1 initiative and how it’s improving efficiency connecting departments and making development easier for their residents, businesses and staff. We’re joined by Nidia Logan Robinson, the Deputy Director of Division of Planning and Development.
Noam Reininger (01:20): So the big question for today in Memphis and Shelby County is all about the developed 9 0 1 initiative and how that initiative reduced permitting times and really unified a whole bunch of departments together to get more speed. So, Nidia, curious about the challenges before develop 9 0 1. Like what was the inception point? How did this come about and love for you to share the mission, um, for that initiative. Sure.
Nidia Logan-Robinson (01:52): First, thank you so much for the invitation. Um, I’m really excited to be a part of this conversation. Um, develop 9 0 1 came about as a collaboration during a time when Memphis was, um, launching its first comprehensive plan in 40 years. So we were thinking about, um, investment development strategy and land use planning, uh, for the city over the next 30 years. So develop nine oh one was born during that time to really rationalize the development process in the city and the county and help us take a very antiquated, fragmented process, um, into a more modern, uh, rational one that not just, um, improved our speed and efficiency, but overall improved our customer’s experience. So development one’s central purpose is to ensure that there’s ultimate transparency for the development, um, partners that are, you know, responsible for regulatory approvals, but also for staff and ultimately for our customers. So we went from a 100% paper process with our agency and a number of the other regulatory partners to a modern process that’s powered by that. Um, engages many of the regulatory partners, I can’t say all yet, not quite yet, that is the ultimate goal. But many of the, the major players in the regulatory process, their staff, um, in the process so that, you know, our customer has one, um, central experience to get their approvals, but also manage their proc projects from end to end.
Joe Morris (03:45): When you look back at, you know, now these new workflows that are digital, what’s the impact on review times mm-hmm <affirmative>. And that impact on your staff and ultimately your constituents?
Nidia Logan-Robinson (03:54): Yeah, so before de before we started this digital journey, uh, with ELA and developed 9 0 1, we, it was typical to see 30 to 50 day review times. And, and, and for us that, um, that’s a long time and that’s just plan review. That doesn’t include end to end, that’s just the construction, um, plan review. So, and that included moving plans from agency to agency, these manual handoffs, um, miscommunication among agencies and among customers from 30 to 50 days at, at peak time. And today we are consistently meeting a 10 day goal of plan review, plan review. And, um, I checked our annual numbers today in preparation for this. So year to date, commercial plan review times average 6.5 days and 34 days from end to end from submission to, to issuance. Residential plan review times are, um, are at four days and submission to issuance is 14 days from end to end. Um, and you know, I will say earlier this year our, our mayor issued a challenge, um, a goal. This is our year of yes. And, um, he challenged us to get building permits issued within 30 days. A very ambitious goal. Um, but we can say that we are moving in that direction, uh, certainly with purpose, and that’s a goal that, that we think we can meet. Wow.
Noam Reininger (05:35): Now that’s super impressive in terms of the turnaround in timeframes, and I know you have planning engineering, there’s public works, got a whole bunch of departments that are coordinating together. And you mentioned shared goals. So I’m, I’m curious behind the scenes, what were the mechanics and, you know, how do you have things set up now to take these disparate departments that kind of worked on their own different goals to now, you know, an orchestration of all of these regulatory agencies that have to come together to get a permit issued on time? So what did, what did that look like and and how did you accomplish that?
Nidia Logan-Robinson (06:12): I think a first great step was the establishment of a governance committee. So this committee was made up of the leaders and decision makers from, um, key regulatory agencies. And, um, we had regular meetings that kind guided the implementation. It guided the design of, uh, the shared platform of Acela, um, during implementation, but it was the foundation for setting the shared goals for, uh, refining the processes, identifying, um, challenges, you know, those common challenges and bottlenecks, um, in our various processes and helping us to work through it. So the, the governance structure itself was a very critical part of this.
Joe Morris (07:00): So I’m gonna come back to something earlier you talked about you, you got this mirror that’s giving you this challenge, and you briefly mentioned that, you know, you got data that’s gonna help you, help you get there. So I wanna just take a moment in terms of, of what impact and role is the data that you’re having reporting that you have access to helping you drive closer to that goal and and ultimately achieve those outcomes?
Nidia Logan-Robinson (07:22): Yeah, the data has been, has been critical. I mean, that, that is really the lifeblood of the work that we’re doing. I’ll note just a couple of things. Um, a few examples of, of how we’re using the data. Um, one, we, we use Ella’s, uh, replicated database, and that’s a powerful tool that gives us, you know, just access to all of this amazing information about all of what we’re doing. So, 70,000 permits, 90,000 inspections, um, you know, we have access to that data at our fingertips. So one, um, really neat tool that our customers love and that just the general public, you know, we were able to use that data, um, to push it into a map to answer one really, uh, important question that customers and members of the public ask us all the time, what’s happening over there? What’s happening in my neighborhood? What’s happening down the street? What, what, what are they building over there? Um, people call the office and, and inquire about things like that all the time. So we gave them a tool powered by data from Marcela that allows them to answer that question themselves so they can, they can pull up a map and they can see all active, um, building permits and planning, uh, applications in this mapping tool so they can see what’s happening near them. They can see the status, they can see a little bit of information about the project, and they can ask really intelligent questions about those projects because they have access to that information. And it remains in the top 10, um, clicked tools on our website ever since it it was launched. I think another, um, another thing that the data enables is our internal service improvement team. So every single month, our, uh, team of administrators, managers, team leaders, um, analysts meet to review our dashboard. Again, it’s powered by data pushed into Power BI and visualized there that, um, it, it shows us how we’re performing at every step of, um, our various processes, planning reviews, building permits, residential, commercial, and we’re able to have really great, uh, discussions and, and planning sessions on how we can continuously improve how we’re doing the work we’re doing, where we’re seeing challenges, right? So, and everyone knows what they’re responsible for. And then another one, it, it helps us to be responsive as the landscape changes. So our, um, state legislature passed a law this year that requires us to justify any fee over a certain amount, $250 justify why we’re assessing that fee and at that amount. And so because we have data from our digital workflows from Accela, that that helps us understand exactly how much time we spend on each step of, of, of our process. We can say we can justify with the data, um, how we’re spending our time, how we’re, how we’re investing, um, the fees that we are collecting in, in staff time, in permit reviews and inspections. And we can, we can, we can be responsive very quickly to, um, you know, a, a change in legislation like that.
Noam Reininger (10:43): Nidia sounds like you’re running really tight. And for other jurisdictions that, you know, they’re, they’re either thinking about digital transformation, their past digital transformation. I think what’s really fascinating about your story is the focus on accountability. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And metrics and continuous improvement. And I’m assuming that to do that you had to also drive a change in culture, and that’s sometime the hardest thing to do. So I’m, so I’m curious, just lessons for other jurisdictions. Maybe we can focus on the culture side, you know, ’cause we talked about some of those other things of like good KPIs, good strategy, good governance. What did you have to do, you know, to change the culture, to get the accountability that you have now where people are empowered to, to drive improvement?
Nidia Logan-Robinson (11:31): I would generally just say that the change management is so important in building and maintaining the trust that you will need to, um, do this, this kind of work for a long time, right? To do this consistent, um, process improvement customers, customers are so important, um, as well as those regulatory partners involve them early and consistently throughout the process and in our organization. Uh, in addition to the governance committee, we have user groups. So our staff are empowered to bring, um, their ideas, their, their challenges to those groups to share and discuss. And then we decide, you know, what things we, um, we implement together and what things go on the roadmap together. So that’s been an important part of the change management and the culture strategy. Constant clear communication has been, um, an ongoing part of the strategy, making sure that everyone is aware, um, and constantly aligned and realigned with the shared goal. They understand why we’re doing what we’re doing. And then I would say to connect your strategy to big audacious goals. So for us, you know, part of the storytelling is not just about reducing permit review times so important, but this is about overall growth and development in the city and the county that we all live, work in and love. Um, we are trying to create a development ecosystem that works for all parties involved. It is, um, you know, it’s, it’s a great economic development strategy. It’s a great business strategy for our small and mid-size builders and developers. We have a process that’s easy for them to navigate. The, the big, the big developers will, will always have the resources to navigate complexity, but the smaller and builders and developers may not have that, um, may not have that option. So we need a process that works well for them. Um, we want a process that, um, that incentivizes companies from all over the nation to want to come to Memphis and Shelby County to do business to build. And a part of that is having a rational development ecosystem that they can plug into.
Noam Reininger (14:05): Super. So, Nidia, thank you so much. I mean, that was, I think a lot of really, really, really great lessons for everybody that’s listing. And it really shows when you’re clear on your strategy, you have a good governance model, you’re implementing change management, right? You’re working on KPIs and you’re working on continuous improvement, you know, what can happen in terms of transformation and frankly, as, as you mentioned it, economic development outcomes for your jurisdiction. So really, really impressive story and thank you for sharing with us.
Nidia Logan-Robinson (14:40): Thank you for the invitation.
Joe Morris (14:43): Absolutely. Doing, doing the right things for the right reasons, I think was my big takeaway, uh, on, on today’s episode. And it really shows how bringing in a unified platform can make it easier, not just for your staff, but for the community that you saw serve at large.
Noam Reininger (14:56): So that’s it for today. What a wonderful episode. And that is the Civic Innovators Podcast. Until next time, keep asking the bold questions.
