"Say you're carrying $2 million in your land at 10%-12% over those years…it gets expensive," says Cederstrand, who along with Fletcher gives the credit to the city's Building and Land Use Services Division and its manager Gary Pedersen. So using the example of a 10-story office building, GlobeSt asked Pedersen what a developer might expect.
"The first thing we ask is 'what is your timeline?'" says Pedersen. "Then we arrange review times for the various elements according to their timing. We become part of the team."
By contrast, says Pedersen, most jurisdictions, including Seattle, won't begin the process until the builder has a complete set of plans, and "then they come back and tell you what you've done wrong," he says. "That's not the case with Tacoma. Because we work as part of the design team, our process runs along side the developer."
The goal is to have permits ready to go soon after the design is complete, he says. The most recent example he gave was Tacoma's new Glass Museum. "Once the final plans and specs were complete, we took one last look through and had all the permits out in two weeks," Pederson says proudly.
"The process is great," says Fletcher. "Tacoma is phenomenal to work with."
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