Mayor John Cooper announced the launch of the Community, Asset, and Land Use (CAL) program to help streamline the process for building in Nashville as the city continues to grow.
“This modern, enterprise-wide system will help Nashville reach its goal of sustainable growth as we reach record levels of building,” said Mayor Cooper. “This will make the process more efficient, and transparent for those working in our built environment – from developers working on multi-million-dollar projects to a neighbor building a detached dwelling in their back yard. “
The CAL program is a multi-year, cross-departmental initiative to replace and optimize functionality for multiple systems used for permitting, inspecting, land management, asset management, and electronic plan reviews.
The enhanced, multi-department technology will enable Nashville to better manage its robust growth. For fiscal year 2023, Nashville issued 13,626 building permits and recorded $5.879 billion in permitted construction costs, up $485 million from fiscal year 2022. The number of building and trade inspections for fiscal year 2023 reached 147,985, up roughly 4,000 inspections compared with fiscal year 2022.
The program, which leverages advanced technologies and data driven solutions, includes two types of projects. CAL Permitting projects, which will impact the public directly, and CAL Asset Management projects, which will enhance Metro’s operations internally.
“This efficient system will greatly reduce our service times, and make the permitting process easier,” Mayor Cooper said. “The result will be an entirely online permitting process from start to finish, all without going into an office and without the duplication of submissions of the same documents to multiple Metro departments.”
The CAL program, which will make the city more responsive in a timely manner, will be rolled out in two phases over several months with multiple projects in each phase. The initial projects are with Nashville’s Department of Transportation (NDOT), followed by MWS Stormwater, Water Services, Parks and Recreation, and Health. The highlights include:
- CAL Permitting, which is underway, will have an online public portal that allows permit applicants to complete the permitting process online and offers full transparency of every permit in the system.
- An NDOT permitting enhancement will enable online permit application and approval tracking. It also will allow applicants to pay online and print permits online.
- In addition, additional departments that are a part of the permitting process will be able to work from the same permit applications, including the on-line review of plans.
- CAL Asset Management, which will begin in Summer 2024, will be integrated with hubNashville allowing residents to open a request in the hub and view updates from inspectors. This will facilitate enhanced transparency and tracking of service requests, and improve management of public assets overall, ensuring proactive maintenance is being completed as needed.
- An additional 9 staff members have been hired to work in building and trades inspections to better serve our building and construction community.
“The CAL program with its increased transparency will empower community members and businesses to participate actively in urban planning, ensuring that Metro's services align with their needs and aspirations,” Mayor Cooper said.
“These changes to streamline the process and add transparency, especially the online permitting portal, will be an enormous benefit for residents and the building community,” said Brad Copeland, president of the Greater Nashville Realtors Association. “These improvements will make it easier and more transparent for people to get information about what is happening in their neighborhoods and throughout Nashville.”
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