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A.The process of approvals of development orders or permits, as defined in s.163.3164(7) and (8), for affordable housing projects is expedited to a greater degree than other projects. Section 163.3164(7), F.S. defines a development order as "any order granting, denying, or granting with conditions an application for a development permit." Section 163.3164(8), F.S. defines a development permit to "include any building permit, zoning permit, subdivision approval, rezoning, certification, special exception, variance, or any other official action of local government having the effect of permitting the development of land". In Indian River County, permits for affordable housing projects are expedited to a greater degree than other projects. Established policies and procedures for expedited permitting are found in Policies 1.5 and 1.6 of the Housing Element. These policies read as follows: POLICY 1.5: By 2015, the county shall establish a web based permitting process. POLICY 1.6: The county shall take all necessary steps to eliminate delays in the review of affordable housing development projects. In order to define delay, the county hereby establishes the following maximum timeframes for approval of projects when an applicant provides needed information in a timely manner: - Administrative approval — 5 days; - Minor site plan — 5 weeks; - Major site plan — 6 weeks; - Special exception approval —13 weeks Whenever these review times increase by 150% or more due to the work load of review staff, the county will begin prioritizing the review of affordable housing development project applications. In prioritizing affordable housing development project applications, staff will schedule affordable housing project applications for review before other types of project applications to ensure that maximum review timeframes are not exceeded for affordable housing projects. ANALYSIS: Consistent with Policy 1.6, the Community Development Department processes affordable housing projects ahead of all other projects. This has been done since 1994. For each affordable housing project application, planning staff notifies other reviewing departments that the application is an affordable housing project and must be reviewed ahead of all other projects. Overall, this process has worked well, with affordable housing projects identified upfront and reviewing departments expediting these project reviews. For major affordable housing projects, this process has saved applicants several weeks in application review/processing time. In 2019, after recommendation from the AHAC, the County revised the permit expediting process further to make identification of affordable housing permits more identifiable. For hardcopy permit application submissions, the new process uses a bright neon green F:\Community Development\SHIP\AHAC\ANNUAL INCENTIVE REPORT AND LHAP REVISIONS\2020 Incentives Report\BCC Item - Incentives Report\AHAC 2020 report v6 - 12-1-20 BCC Review.doc