Building permits to go digital

The back of the Washoe County Building and Safety Department office is cluttered with boxes full of building plans submitted by architects, contractors and homeowners.

Thousands of other plans already have been formatted and stashed away on microfilm.

Gradually, though, the department will be rid of that clutter with the help of a new software imaging program called Legato.

The software will allow the department to digitally store the plans on its computer system.

And even more importantly, Legato will bring more efficient communication between department employees and contractors, homeowners and architects.

"What we are trying to do is create a seamless system for our staff and our customers," said Jess Traver, director of the Department of Building and Safety.

Under the new system, each permit, including documentation and blueprints, can be entered into a computer through a large scanner and brought onto the Legato program as a TIFF file.

After being indexed, the document can then be brought up by, say, a building department planning checker or engineer.

From there, that person can use program tools to make changes on a document and relay them to anybody else in the department.

To streamline the process even further, documents can be e-mailed back to the contractor or architect who submitted them.

This would save them from making repeated trips to the building and safety office for consultation on permit revisions.

The purchase and installation of the new system will cost $360,000.

Sparksbased High Desert Microimaging, Inc.

was selected over 20 other firms to install the system.

Installation of the software is expected to take up to six months.

That includes customizing the software and training department employees.

Other departments in the Washoe County system will be able to use the program in the future.

Meg Miller, president of High Desert Microimaging, said her company has installed similar Legato programs for the City of Sparks and the State of Nevada Eventually, customers may be able to access the permits online at the county's website, but because of technological and governmental controls that may not be possible for up to 10 years.

Traver pointed out that some contractors and architects still do not have computer systems in their offices to access permit documents or communicate with building department personnel.

Plus contractors and architects will still have to submit plans manually to the building department office rather than by doing it online or by email.

"The only snafu is if the contractor doesn't have a computer system," Traver said.

"The contractor is also still going to have work with paper and I don't know any other way around it."