OCA Reports

Issued: August 2009

This report presents the results of our audit of the City’s One Stop Shop for development projects. This audit was approved as part of OCA’s FY09 Service Plan.

Land Development Regulation and Compliance in Austin serves many important purposes which One Stop Shop (OSS) directly supports, such as building safety, neighborhood compatibility, environmental protection, and energy efficiency. The purpose of OSS is to consolidate the process of land development permitting and assistance into a single location in order to create a more efficient development process for the community. OSS is managed by the Watershed Protection and Development Review department (WPDR). Basic services of OSS include offering customer guidance, reviewing plans, issuing permits, performing inspections, and providing legal and website support for these services. Several City departments are involved in OSS. Ensuring Land Development Code (LDC) compliance involves inherent tension between developers and neighborhoods and between achieving customer satisfaction and enforcing the Code. Significant changes to the LDC have occurred over the last few years, resulting in increased complexity of OSS reviews and inspections.

We found a number of things that OSS is doing well. However, continued improvement is needed in several areas.

• Although OSS provides extensive information for customers and uses some best practices, OSS tools for communicating with customers do not provide sufficient assistance to help customers develop property in compliance with City Code. OSS uses best practices such as the OSS website, the Development Assistance Center (DAC), and some customer training, but improvements in the clarity of information presented on the website are needed, as well as clarification of the limitations of DAC consultations for customers to avoid unintended conflicts. OSS website improvements have been delayed by delays in the City’s planned Citywide website redesign. Other improvement efforts are underway.
• While there have been extensive changes to the LDC in recent years which OSS has responded to, OSS management does not have adequate mechanisms in place to ensure consistency or quality of OSS reviews, especially in the Residential Review group, and does not have a sufficient process to manage implementation of changes to the City Code that impact OSS operations. Supervision, training, and guidance of staff on Code interpretations need improvement, and process tools need to be updated to reflect current requirements of the LDC as changes occur.
• Customer satisfaction with OSS is low in some areas, while several timeliness targets have not been achieved; and while several improvements are underway to strengthen customer service, more tools are needed to effectively gauge and address customer concerns.
• Some of the issues we identified are exacerbated by workload, staffing, morale issues, and funding constraints, affected in part by fee levels and waivers. Staffing levels have been constrained as workload and complexity have increased while turnaround times have remained the same, impacting morale and staff retention. Fees do not cover costs and appear to be lower than those of comparable cities, though higher than those of Texas cities. Addressing these issues is important to ensure the City’s readiness to support local economic recovery activities related to development.
• A number of issues warrant further consideration as they relate to OSS effectiveness but were not examined in detail in this audit, such as OSS partnership agreements with other departments, interaction with utility coordination and Code enforcement groups, the development and permitting information system AMANDA, easements and license agreements, neighborhood planning and zoning issues, and LDC complexity and the City’s comprehensive plan.

We have issued 29 recommendations to improve consistency of Code interpretations, close customer service gaps, improve customer information and satisfaction, support staff to ensure an effective function, and assess fees and monitor fee waivers to ensure sufficient funding for the function. Management has concurred with a majority of the recommendations.

Download the entire text of our One Stop Shop in Adobe Acrobat. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view these files. Or request a hard copy of this audit report, No. AU09107, by submitting this audit report request form.

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