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The Development Services Department’s Water Quality and Drainage Review team is working to decrease processing times, while providing high-quality, comprehensive reviews. Even with staff performing overtime, Water Quality and Drainage reviews have been exceeding target timelines as a result of high turnover combined with an industry-wide shortage of professional engineering candidates.
As a result, City staff is implementing several immediate improvements to help reduce turnaround times while continuing to ensure that projects address Code requirements and sound engineering principles to protect water quality and public safety. By taking a strategic approach, the goal is to utilize limited staff resources more efficiently with a focus on shortening review times.
The following processes are now in place:
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Additional Administrative Support: Additional administrative support for application guidance or pending reviews is now available by emailing WaterQualityDrainage@austintexas.gov. Staff will respond to all emails in 1-2 business days.
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Partial Comment Reports: As a reminder, applicants may request a partial comment report from the case manager during the review process. This enables applicants to make progress across different review disciplines while staff works to complete the final elements of review. However, due to technological limitations, formal responses from an applicant are only accepted after the final comment report for that review cycle is issued. This ensures all comments in a review cycle reflect the same plan set.
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Additional Review Resources: Assistance from partner divisions will support Water Quality and Drainage reviews as needed.
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Targeted Review: For efficiency, reviewers will focus on an initial comprehensive review of critical items and will address items that could change based on those initial comments in a subsequent review.
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Inspection Deferrals: Inspectors can now check and approve some plan review items during on-site visits, especially features addressing unique site conditions that are difficult to demonstrate in site plan drawings.
We ask that applicants ensure submitted site plan applications contain all the required information and documentation, which also helps reduce time spent in the review process.
In the coming months, we will contact customers who required frequent Water Quality and Drainage reviews for feedback on these improvements and to help DSD staff identify other opportunities to improve this process. If you have questions about these improvements or suggestions for alternative measures, please send them to WaterQualityDrainage@austintexas.gov.
City of Austin Development Services Department
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