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A.The process of approvals of development orders <br />or permits, as defined in s.163.3164(7) and (8), for <br />affordable housing projects is expedited to a <br />greater degree than other projects. <br />Section 163.3164(7), F.S. defines a development order as "any order granting, denying, <br />or granting with conditions an application for a development permit." Section <br />163.3164(8), F.S. defines a development permit to "include any building permit, zoning <br />permit, subdivision approval, rezoning, certification, special exception, variance, or any <br />other official action of local government having the effect of permitting the development <br />of land". <br />In Indian River County, permits for affordable housing projects are expedited to a greater <br />degree than other projects. Established policies and procedures for expedited permitting <br />are found in Policies 1.5 and 1.6 of the Housing Element. These policies read as follows: <br />POLICY 1.5: By 2015, the county shall establish a web based permitting process. <br />POLICY 1.6: The county shall take all necessary steps to eliminate delays in the review of affordable <br />housing development projects. In order to define delay, the county hereby establishes the following <br />maximum timeframes for approval of projects when an applicant provides needed information in a <br />timely manner: <br />- Administrative approval — 5 days; <br />- Minor site plan — 5 weeks; <br />- Major site plan — 6 weeks; <br />- Special exception approval —13 weeks <br />Whenever these review times increase by 150% or more due to the work load of review staff, the county <br />will begin prioritizing the review of affordable housing development project applications. In prioritizing <br />affordable housing development project applications, staff will schedule affordable housing project <br />applications for review before other types of project applications to ensure that maximum review <br />timeframes are not exceeded for affordable housing projects. <br />ANALYSIS: <br />The county is in the process of establishing a full web -based permitting process. <br />Currently, some permits can be applied for online. Some components of full web -based <br />permitting are now available, and the remaining components should be in place by 2015. <br />Consistent with Policy 1.6, the Community Development Department processes <br />affordable housing projects ahead of all other projects. This has been done since 1994. <br />For each affordable housing project application, planning staff notifies other reviewing <br />departments that the application is an affordable housing project and must be reviewed <br />ahead of all other projects. Overall, this process has worked well, with affordable <br />housing projects identified upfront and reviewing departments expediting these project <br />reviews. For major affordable housing projects, this process has saved applicants several <br />weeks in application review/processing time. <br />F:\Community Development\SHIP\AHAC\AHAC 2014\AHAC 2014 report.doc <br />5 <br />50 <br />