City Launches New Online Permitting And Planning System

Mayor Lee Brand introduced a new online customer service portal today that will dramatically improve the permitting and planning process at City Hall.  The new system, called FAASTER – which stand for, Fresno’s Accelerated Applications System to Track Electronic Reviews – was developed by Accela, the leading provider of cloud-based productivity and civic engagement solutions for government.

The City’s new FAASTER system will allow anyone who applies for a building permit with the City of Fresno to submit, pay for, and track the status of their permit application online, 24 hours a day.

“It was essential for our goal to make Fresno the most business-friendly city in California to have an online system that works and Accela has delivered,” said Mayor Brand. “FAASTER is a ‘one-stop-shop’ that’s easy to use and can be configured to work on mobile devices. That’s important because many of our customers spend most of their day on a project site and having the power to move their project forward without having to leave their worksite is a game-changer.”

FAASTER is a vital component to the mayor’s Business Friendly Fresno 2.0! initiative, bringing transparency to the permitting process and helping City staff identify problem areas that can be improved.  The portal will also help dramatically improve turnaround times for business customers and has already been beta tested by a number of developers and contractors.

The City had previously partnered with Accela when developing their highly successful FresGO mobile app.  For more than 15 years, Accela has been the industry leader in designing and delivering productivity and engagement software to help government agencies be their best.  Accela provides a robust platform of solutions that increase engagement, improve efficiency and deliver transparency to strengthen communities called the Accela Civic Platform.