Holistic Approach Needed for Disaster Resiliency, Sustainability & Public Safety

Webinar by Robert Wible presented by Emergency Management Forum on September 28, 2011 - Click Here for Webinar Recording of the live meeting by Emergency Information Infrastructure Project (EIIP).

EIIP is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to enhancing the practices of emergency management, and thereby public safety, through offering professional development to practitioners and other interested parties.

STILL STANDING AT THE FOOT OF THE TOWER OF BABEL

Robert C. Wible, Principal Robert Wible & Associates & FIATECH Project Manager

WHERE WE HAVE BEEN
On September 11, 2001, I spent the majority of the day in the state building code agency in Trenton, New Jersey alongside a team of people looking at how to possibly get building inspectors into Manhattan to help with the damage assessments that had to be done.

That day we witnessed the tragic outcome of the system's shortcomings: no one at "Ground Zero" had interoperable communications to help navigate the essential flow of information between agencies, nor did anyone have access to the operational building plans of the World Trade Center, or to the architects and engineers who constructed the towers - those essential experts who would have been able to help first responders understand, in those early moments, just how the buildings would come down.

In the aftermath of the event, at the McGraw Hill "Homeland Security Summit, Session on Lessons from the World Trade Center Destruction" held in Washington, D.C. on June 6, 2002, several speakers, including then Senator Joseph Biden, assessed the damage and addressed the need for:

• Interoperable communications for first responders
  
• Immediate access to building plans
  
• Stronger & larger mutual aid agreements
  
• Better protocols for spelling out Federal, state and local roles and responsibilities in disasters
  
• The integration of the private sector into disaster response units
  
• Greater uniformity in building codes with stronger disaster resiliency provisions
  
• The elimination of "stove pipe bureaucracies" that block effective coordinated disaster preparedness, response and recovery programs

WHERE WE ARE TODAY
May 19, 2011. I am watching a room full of public and private sector professionals run through the 2011 Golden Guardian exercise at the State of California SOC outside of Sacramento. Everywhere around me, teams of people are rehearsing their response to a scenario in which large portions of California's Central Valley, including most of Sacramento, are underwater, with more downpours yet to come in the largest flood in the Golden State's recorded history.

I can see through this 2011 Golden Guardian exercise the fruits of the tireless work of countless professionals, who reflect in their planning exercise some of the lessons learned from the last ten years, including:

• The expansion of EMAC into a nationwide system
  
• The work of CalEMA's Business Utilities Operation Center as an integral part of the SOC
  
• Clear & readily understood lines of authority & communication between Federal, state and local units of government
  
• The greater ability of first responders to communicate using interoperable devices
  
• The role of stronger building codes and codes enforcement

HOW FAR WE HAVE TO GO
As encouraging as the work in California is, there are still significant problems to be addressed nationwide. Eric Holdemen's "Black Swan Events" Point of View column in the May/June issue of Emergency Management, the on-going revelations from Japan's recovery efforts since the March disasters, and a report issued June 3rd by McGraw- Hill, "Recommendations to Congress, the Administration and the Private Sector to Mitigate Impacts of Disasters by Planning and Building for Resiliency" each highlight just how far we have yet to go to make the nation more disaster resilient.

Chief among those shortcomings is the fact that despite the best efforts of all parties our nation still:

• Treats disasters as "one of" events, that happen elsewhere but "not here"
  
• Generally prepares for only one disaster scenario at a time and not for multiple catastrophes or events of such magnitude that they cripple the American economy and cause - as Japan is experiencing - large parts of our economic base to be permanently captured by competitor nations
  
• Sees disaster resiliency as being a totally separate issue from the economic sustainability of our nation

While more of us today work better together to make our nation more disaster resilient, too many of us still do not understand the need to join in such communication. We continue to see disaster resiliency as something not related to us and go on speaking our individual languages - aerospace, military, energy, agriculture, banking, et al. Without the ongoing mutual effort from our public and private sectors, we will find ourselves, just as we did on 9/11, still standing at the base of the Tower of Babel, unable to communicate and effectively cooperate in order to assure the resiliency and growth of our republic and its people.

PLEASE JOIN THE ALLIANCE AND THOSE OF US WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE MARCH 2-3, 2011 McGRAW-HILL CONFERENCE and prepared "RECOMMENDATIONS TO CONGRESS, THE ADMINISTRATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR TO MITIGATE IMPACTS OF DISASTERS BY PLANNING AND BUILDING FOR RESILIENCY," in working together to address these vital issues!

Contact me at: rcwible@comcast.net

ALLIANCE MISSION STATEMENT:

The economic viability and life safety of the nation can no longer afford to be kept at risk by a regulatory system created in the mid-1900's. The nation's public safety, disaster resiliency and economic competitiveness require our land use and building design and construction processes to become more effective and efficient through streamlining and the application of modern technologies. Communities that effectively have streamlined these processes have strengthened construction code enforcement, reduced by up to 80% the amount of time it takes to move a construction project through those processes and demonstrated the ability to improve disaster preparedness and speed response and recovery.

The goal of the Alliance is to support local and state governments and the private sector with implementing modern technologies and streamlining objectives.

HOW IMPORTANT IS ALL OF THIS?

Consider the following:

Why would anyone invest in the United States (your state, city, county, etc.) ? What is the Value Proposition to attract (or keep) best people & best capital?

The above questions were raised by IBM President Samual Palmisano at February 2 CSIS Conference in Washington, D.C. - Saving Federal Government $ 1 Trillion in Waste to make American Competitive again. Participants at that conference noted that the nation can no longer afford 1950's Federal, state & local regulatory & administrative & enforcement systems in 21st Century - "Have to Go to the Future!"

Alliance documented benefits from Streamlining include:

• Regulatory Streamlining & application of Information Technology documented - Overall reduces time to process, inspect , approve, design & construction and opening of buildings or renovations by up to 80% , reducing staffing & energy costs by 40% by applying:
  

  - ePlan Review
  - On-line permit application & processing
  - Mobile Inspection Technology
  - Identifying and reducing/eliminating areas of regulatory overlap & conflict
  

• Speed Disaster response & recovery through ePlan Review & providing first responders with electronic as operated blueprints of buildings
  
  
• On June 13, 2011 the Chair of the President's Jobs and Competitiveness Council in Wall Street Journal Opinion Column flagged "Streamline of permitting" as the #2 recommendation to moving the economy forward. President Obama in June 29th news conference called upon the nation to undertake such streamlining!

WHY THE ALLIANCE:

Founded in the summer of 2001, the Alliance is a public-private sector partnership supported by both the FIATECH Streamlining Project and Robert Wible & Associates that undertake projects and provide services that help Federal agencies, state and local governments and the private sector to work cooperatively to streamline the regulatory system the regulatory system, improve code enforcement, and move buildings through the regulatory system 70% faster.

Over the past ten years this partnership has:

• Worked with 56 local jurisdictions and 5 states to identify regulatory barriers to more effective & efficient codes administration and enabled them to streamline processes and use IT to reduce process time by 70%. (RWA)
  
• Worked with the International Code Council to produce an ICC Guideline for Replicable Buildings that allows for single code reviews for replicable residential and commercial structures. Sample savings, one "big box store" saves an average of $150,000 per store in reduced time delays caused by multiple reviews. (FIATECH)
  
• Demonstrated the ability to link and make interoperable mobile field inspection technologies to conduct post disaster damage safety inspections (RWA)
  
• Initiated work with the International Code Council to demonstrate the ability to produce an Automated Code checking tool to enable building departments to use BIM data (FIATECH)
  
• Enabled jurisdictions to acquire electronic plan review technology to develop and put in place secure database of existing building plans for first responders to download as they roll up on a disaster site (RWA)
  
• Produced streamlining and IT "roadmaps" for state (Louisiana) and local governments across the United States. (RWA)
  
• Produced publications and guides that provide jurisdictions information on the benefits of applying different IT to construction regulatory processes and link jurisdictions to cities/towns/counties that will share their streamlining experience. (RWA & FIATECH)
  

WELCOME TO THE ALLIANCE STREAMLINING WEBSITE AND THE STREAMLINING IMPERATIVE

Over the past ten years, a growing number of jurisdictions, supported by forward thinking officials, the construction industry and building owners, have streamlined building and land use regulatory systems and where appropriate applied information technology to improve their effectiveness and efficiency; increasing energy conservation, economic competitiveness and disaster resiliency of their communities.

This is not about regulatory abandonment!

This is about spending both government and private sector dollars wisely. It is about increasing the efficiency of modern construction codes, rules and regulations and reducing the amount of time it takes to move a new building or building renovation through the regulatory process by as much as 80% annually saving both the private and public sectors tens of billions of dollars.

In the late 1990's and thru 2007, building owners, the construction industry and government officials saw streamlining and application of IT to their regulatory processes as a "good idea," with some 10% of the nation's 40,000 jurisdictions applying IT to some portion of their regulatory system. The current deep recession and catastrophic disasters, however, have made such savings "imperative."

Communities have reduced their staffs, and they desperately need the jobs, and the revenues from taxes and fees that new construction and building renovations can generate. Likewise the private sector, with the reduced availability of construction loans and need to generate revenues as quickly as possible from the buildings they construct or renovate, needs to eliminate as much as possible time spent trying to move a building through cumbersome and inefficient regulatory systems.

THE STREAMLINING IMPERATIVE

Consider the following streamlining savings:

e-Permit Processing now used in over 3,000 jurisdictions across the nation ranging in population from Los Angeles (3,695,000) to Cobleskill, NY (5,300) reduce staff and building owner/architect times to process permits by between 30 – 40%.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems in Shelby Co., TN; Orlando, FL and Washington Co., OR reduce the time to schedule and conduct inspections from 2-3 days to less than 24 hours.

Mobile field inspection technology being used in cities including Phoenix, AZ; San Dimas, CA increase the number of inspections performed per day by 25% and reduce contractor down time waiting for inspections and their results by 20%.

e-Plan Review now being conducted in: Salt Lake City, UT; Mecklenburg County, NC; Washington, DC; Bend, OR; Maricopa Co., AZ; Osceola Co., FL and over 100 other jurisdictions reduce the amount of time it takes to review plans by 60%, eliminate lost plans, and reduce by 80% the number of trips to these jurisdictions by out of state owners/architects.

The FIATECH and International Code Council generated "Guideline for Replicable Buildings (ICC G1-2010)" is currently being adopted by jurisdictions across the nation. The Guideline enables jurisdictions to accept a single plan review done by an authoritative source for replicable commercial and residential structures. Local communities then only review those buildings for any siting issues and/or any differences they may have from the technical code provisions in the code used to review and approve the building. In a demonstration of the savings possible from the Guideline Target stores undergoing a minor renovation in California reduced from an average of between 18 and 24 weeks the amount of time it took for local governments to conduct the plan reviews for those buildings down to 8 weeks, saving Target an average of $100,000 in review time per store.

Lastly, streamlined processes are getting buildings up and open faster, putting both people to work and revenues into the jurisdiction’s coffers sooner; for example a 200 room hotel open just 3 months earlier using streamlined processes with an 80% occupancy = $144,000 in added tax revenues to a jurisdiction just from the 10% occupancy tax on $100/night rooms.

While many communities in 2009 and 2010 talked about having "shovel ready" projects for receipt of Federal and state economic stimulus funds, many of these projects were never funded simply because these projects were not actually "shovel ready" due to their not having completed the mandatory regulatory reviews and approvals. Is the jurisdiction where you work as a building or land use official, an elected official or where your next construction project is going to be built "Regulatory Ready?"

PURPOSE OF THIS WEBSITE

This website provides elected and appointed government officials, building owners, the construction community, civic groups, academicians, the information technology community and general public with background on the need for and tools that they can download to help reduce the regulatory cost of construction between 40% and 80% while increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of land use and construction regulatory programs.

The tools included in this site have been successfully used by communities listed in the Guides and White Papers that are available for downloading to help them both increase their economic competitiveness and strengthen the ability of their communities to prepare for, respond to and recover from natural and man-made disaster.

The resources provided here can be used to:

Assess if your community has regulatory barriers that impede both safe and affordable construction and assess the effectiveness and efficiency of your community’s building and land use regulatory programs to facilitate economic competitiveness and disaster resiliency (Guide_to_Building_Regulatory_Processes.pdf).

Provide elected officials with a "Streamlining Toolkit" that summarizes the benefits of streamlining and application of diverse information technologies to land use and building regulatory processes including: e-permitting, e-plan review, mobile field inspection technologies, interactive voice response systems, developing an action plan for disaster resiliency.

Look at the benefits of streamlining and applying information technology to your land use and building plan submittal, review, tracking and storage processes.

Identify and assemble stakeholders to undertake a successful streamlining of your community's codes administration and enforcement program (Guide_to_Building_Regulatory_Processes.pdf).

Work with your community to adopt and make use of the "ICC Guideline for Replicable Buildings" to both speed new construction and building renovations to replicable residential and commercial structures, reducing code review processing time by up to 60%.

Review and share with your elected officials and/or building officials the numerous PowerPoint presentations provided on this website (in the navigation links on the left) that cover regulatory streamlining and benefits of applying information technology to improve program effectiveness and efficiency.

Inform you of upcoming streamlining conferences and workshops conducted by FIATECH, the Alliance and its partners' and provide you with registration information for those programs (www.FIATECH.org)

Provide documentation of cost/benefit/savings analysis of successful streamlining initiatives that have applied information technology to construction regulatory and administrative processes (Link to ROI_Report_May05.pdf)

Provide model information technology procurement requirements (Model Procurement Requirements from July 2006 Report)

Develop statewide or regional interoperable network of mobile field inspectors to conduct safety/damage assessment reports (California Project to Speed Safety/Damage Assessments thru Mobile Field Inspection Technology PPT)

Provide access to services available to both the public and private sectors from Robert Wible & Associates to assist State and local governments in assessing their existing processes, designing and putting in place streamlining programs and technologies.

Of immediate interest to users of this site are those items listed on the left hand side of this homepage. A number of these materials have been produced with funding from Alliance members in both the public and private sectors including:

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; U.S. Department of Energy; National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) Building Regulatory Process Subcommittee; FIATECH; American Institute of Architects; Associated General Contractors; Building Owners and Managers Association, International; International Code Council; Avolve Software; Accela Corporation; Infor; Marriott Corporation; Selectron; Target Corporation; National Governors Association; U.S. Conference of Mayors; and the National Association of Counties

The Streamlining Project at FIATECH, the Alliance Partners and Robert Wible & Associates hope you find the streamlining materials on this website and new materials that are currently under development (See "How to Get Involved in Streamlining") to be useful in your state or local community. We are especially interested in any feedback you can provide us concerning how effective you found these materials and this website. Your feedback will help us improve the quality of our materials and this site.

As the founder of the Alliance, Project Manager of the FIATECH Streamlining Project and Principal of Robert Wible & Associates, please feel free to contact me concerning this site, its products and materials. I can be reached at: (703) 568-2323 or by email at either: wible@fiatech.org or rcwible@comcast.net.

Sincerely,

Robert C. Wible,
FIATECH Streamlining Project Manager and President, Robert Wible & Associates

ORIGINS OF THE ALLIANCE FOR BUILDING REGULATORY REFORM IN THE DIGITAL AGE

The Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age, now working as the FIATECH Streamlining Project, was formed in the summer of 2001 by associations representing state and local governments and the building industry to identify and share best practices that streamline the nation’s building regulatory processes to enable communities to improve their effectiveness and efficiency by making greater use of information technology. Some of the Alliance’s founding members included: National Governors Association; National Association of Counties; U.S. Conference of Mayors; National Institute of Standards and Technology; National Association of State Chief Information Officers; American Institute of Architects; Building Owners and Managers Association, International; and the National Association of Home Builders.

To strengthen a cooperative working relationship between government and the private sector, in June 2007, the Alliance became affiliated with FIATECH, a not for profit association that serves as a consortium for the capital facilities industry. FIATECH identifies and accelerates the development, demonstration and deployment of fully integrated and automated technologies to improve the quality and life cycle of buildings. For additional information on FIATECH and the FIATECH Streamlining Project visit the FIATECH website at: www.FIATECH.org

ALLIANCE REVISED VISION AND MISSION STATEMENTS

Vision Statement: In Five Years Time

–   Losses of property and life from manmade natural disasters will be reduced through an increase in the number of jurisdictions adopting and enforcing building codes with disaster mitigation provisions. 

–  the nation will annually save over $30 billion in unnecessary construction costs

–  disaster recovery time will be reduced through the use of streamlined permitting, plans review and inspection processes

–  public safety, infrastructure, technological innovation, and disaster resilience will be increased through regulatory streamlining which identifies and eliminates areas of overlap, duplication, conflict and inefficiency in the building and land use regulatory processes.

Streamlining is the MORE effective and efficient enforcement of statutes, rules, regulations, processes, and procedures adopted by all levels of government. Streamlining is NOT regulatory abandonment.

Mission Statement for Initiative

By 2012, working together the public and private sector partners of this national streamlining initiative will:

Strengthen national disaster resilience and economic competitiveness of the United States by identifying best practices and facilitating their implementation to streamline the building and land use regulatory processes to deliver services that make construction safer, more predictable, timely, and less costly through the identification and elimination of areas of regulatory overlap, duplication and the use of integrated technologies, processes and procedures.

Streamlining will:

–   Annually save the public and private sectors over $30 billion in unnecessary construction costs do to regulatory duplication, time delays and other inefficiencies by reducing between 40%-60% the amount of time it takes to move construction projects through the regulatory system. 

–  Create greater enforcement uniformity enabling state and local governments to make effective use of information technology and link and use 3 & 4 D building design (as built) and other data generated by the building design and construction community.

–  Create greater code and enforcement uniformity enabling state and local governments to work together on a regional basis to better plan, train, mitigate, respond to and recover from man-made and natural disasters.

–  Identify and eliminate or reduce prior to disasters those Federal, state and local statutes, rules, regulations, processes and procedures that impede reconstruction, saving minimum of 3-6 months of recovery time.