October 9, 2006

A new package of best practices, guides and other tools that assist mayors in strengthening economic competitiveness and the ability of communities to better prepare for, respond to and recover from natural and man-made disasters was released September 26 by The U.S. Conference of Mayors. The guides were produced this summer by the Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age of which The U.S. Conference of Mayors is a founding member.

The two work products mailed to every mayor include the Alliance’s: 4th CD-ROM Report and an eight-page “Elected Officials Guide to More Effective and Efficient Building Regulatory Processes.”

The CD-ROM report contains case studies and actions taken by city, county and state governments that have:

• Identified and reduced areas of regulatory overlap and duplication that slowed construction and added unnecessary costs that made housing and building renovation less affordable;

• Enabled communities to speed disaster damage assessment and recovery processes and better share resources with neighbors;

• Identified and effectively and efficiently applied information technology to streamlined codes administration and enforcement processes reducing regulatory costs of construction by up to 60 percent and enabled a state to begin to build a statewide on-line permit processing system; and

• Demonstrated initial interoperability of Department of Energy software tools that promote energy conservation in residential and commercial structures (REScheck and COMcheck programs).

The CD-ROM also includes a link to a new website for the Alliance: www.natlpartnerstreamline.org and the results of several recent cost/benefit surveys that document savings being achieved by communities that streamline their building regulatory processes and make use of information technology.

The Guide summarizes streamlining and outlines the steps that a community can take to:

• Assess the need for streamlining and identify stakeholders to support more effective and efficient codes administration;

• Identify resources to undertake streamlining;

• Where necessary re-engineer their existing building regulatory process; and

• Identify which hardware and software might best fit their needs.

In addition to the above materials available from the Alliance in October, 2006, will be an 83-page HUD Guide that expands upon the Elected Officials Guide’s contents by providing details of the above steps and best practices successfully used by city, county and state governments to improve their programs. The HUD Guide includes a special chapter on lessons learned from Katrina and other disasters that improve a community’s disaster resiliency.

The Conference of Mayors is a founding member of the Alliance. The Alliance was formed in July of 2001, as a private-public partnership comprised of national associations and organizations representing state and local governments, the construction industry and universities concerned with effective and efficient government enforcement of building codes and standards. Among the 40 national partners joining the Conference of Mayors in the Alliance are: American Institute of Architects, National Association of Counties, National Governors Association, National Association of Home Builders, Associated General Contractors, Building Owners and Managers Association, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Energy and several state and local governments.

In early 2006, the Alliance began a series of meetings that have lead to: the expansion of their original mission to include streamlining of zoning and land use regulations; allowed private sector firms to become members; and brought greater focus on the impact that streamlining can have on enhancing the ability of state and local governments to better prepare for, respond to and recover from man-made and natural disasters.

The Alliance is planning a national conference in Washington (DC) tentatively set for January 10-11, 2007 at the National Association of Home Builders headquarters for partners, senior government officials and heads of national corporations to undertake a more extensive national streamlining agenda which includes future federal grants to state and local governments. The Alliance also is considering changing its organizational structure and its name to the National Partnership to Streamline Government.

For more information, visit the alliance website www.natlpartnerstreamline.org or contact Alliance/National Partnership Secretary Robert Wible at: e-mail: rcwible@comcast.net; phone: 703-568-2323; fax: 703-620-0015.