DOB Announces One New York

By Penny Laughlin

The DOB has announced a new series of initiatives, designed to further assist and streamline their  processes. One New York: The Plan for a Strong and Just City plans to live up to its name by outlining direct and long term goals for the DOB that focus on Public safety, improvement of customer service and transparency.

Speeding the plan review process will always be high on everyone’s list, and the DOB will address the issue by hiring additional plan examiners and inspectors.   With more manpower, the DOB is looking to shrink inspection times dramatically, shooting to have inspection dates within 5 days of request.

More changes are coming on the computing end. BIS will be receiving a hardware upgrade to speed up processing times and ensure higher reliability. More services will become available online, including the retrieval of application status, interaction with agency staff, and online payments. By routing more people to the online services, the DOB is hoping to further reduce physical visits, which in turn will allow the Plan Examiners to work more efficiently.

The Inspection Ready Program is gearing up for full deployment. Inspection results will be available online, and inspectors routes will be tracked through the system.  Ideally, more inspections per day can be performed and the wait times for the inspections will be reduced.

A new Affordable Housing Unit will be organized within the NYC Development HUB. The team will prioritize and assist in coordinating the efforts for approval and completions of projects.

For more details of this and other recent reports from the Mayor’s Office, please click on the links below:

One City Built to Last
Housing New York – A Five Borough Ten-Year Plan
Small Business First