Lincoln Chamber, LPED Release City Development Results

The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development have released the results of a recent industry survey focused on Lincoln’s development, permitting and inspection processes. The survey gathered feedback from professionals who regularly work with the City’s Planning and Development Services Department to better understand strengths, challenges and opportunities for continued improvement. This effort is also part of the Lincoln Chamber’s Vitality Lincoln Strategic Plan, which calls for ongoing collaboration between business, development and city leaders to support a development process that provides greater speed, clarity and consistency for projects in Lincoln. 

Overall, respondents highlighted favorability with the professionalism and responsiveness of City staff, improvements in communication and coordination and the efficiency of the inspection process. Online permitting and scheduling tools were also viewed positively. Respondents identified opportunities to improve permitting timelines, consistency in code interpretation, communication surrounding code updates and overall process clarity for larger commercial and development projects. 

“This survey is a baseline assessment from which the public and private sectors can work together,” said Jason Ball, President and CEO of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development. “Looking forward, our goal is to collectively identify and implement improvements to the development process in Lincoln. That will be based on consistent dialogue between the City of Lincoln and development industry leaders.”

The Lincoln Chamber and Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development have worked directly with Planning and Development Services Director David Cary throughout this process and appreciates his openness to feedback and ongoing engagement with industry professionals.

“Great customer service, faster reviews, and improved accuracy within our development services center has been a top priority for Mayor Gaylor Baird for several years now. At her direction, we have made many significant changes to our processes. In addition to the decision to merge the Planning and Building & Safety Departments into the new Planning & Development Services Department, we have also focused on the level of customer service received by everyone we interact with through staff-wide training, implementing a new pre-application service at no cost to customers, and we are expanding our ability to conduct commercial plan reviews through employing third party reviewers. We appreciate our partnership with the Lincoln Chamber and Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development as we continue to make even more improvements to support growth in our community. It is always useful to hear feedback from private sector partners in the development process to help inform the City’s efforts to level up City services. I also appreciate the acknowledgement that City efforts are succeeding, and we will continue to push forward in support of growing our community.”

The Lincoln Chamber and Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development plan to continue facilitating conversations between industry stakeholders and City leadership to support practical solutions and continued improvement.

The full report can be found at lcoc.com/advocacy and clicking on the "Pathways to Progress" button.