As a notable retail and office hub, the City processes nearly 2,000 permits annually, with projects ranging from sprawling 7,000-10,000 square-foot residential homes, to commercial developments and hotel construction. Greenwood Village’s dramatic daily population surge creates unique demands for efficient, accessible permit processing that serves both residents and business professionals.

Manual Processes Created Inefficiencies and Risk

Before implementing ProjectDox, different departments within Greenwood Village utilized various technologies for plan review, from construction management software to PDF readers.

With a number of reviewing departments, including Public Works, Community Development, City Clerk’s Office, Tax Department, and the Police Department, this disjointed approach led to numerous operational challenges — particularly for permit technicians who shouldered the burden of manual processes.

Our permit technicians were doing a lot of duplicate work,” explained Perez. “Somebody would email a document, they would upload it, it would get marked up, then they would download it, and send it back to the applicant. There were upwards of six different steps alone when it came to plan review.”

The manual system also introduced risks for error and challenges with oversight. During periods of spikes in applications, staff working under pressure would occasionally miss steps in the review process. Transparency suffered as well.

“We didn’t always know who had hands on a document or an item. Sometimes plans would go missing, and we’d spend half a day looking for it,” Perez recalled.

The jurisdiction also struggled with accountability between the agency and applicants. “The plan review would get stuck somewhere and often the finger was pointed at us,” said Perez.

Choosing Avolve for Automation and Integration

When evaluating electronic plan review solutions, Greenwood Village prioritized integration capabilities, particularly with their Cityworks platform. “The primary driver for selecting Avolve was its automation capabilities and its integration with Cityworks,” Perez noted.

“After implementing ProjectDox, our turnaround time from application to issue was 20% faster. This was mainly due to the plan review process becoming more accountable via the auto reminders that Avolve sends to the applicants, which reduced our waiting time.” Rey Perez, Neighborhood Services Manager, Community Development, City of Greenwood Village, CO

ProjectDox Brings Efficiency Gains and Heightened Accountability

Since implementing the Avolve solution, Greenwood Village has realized significant improvements in several key areas.

Notably, the City saved approximately 20% in the turnaround time from application to issue, primarily due to enhanced accountability in the plan review process and Avolve’s automated reminders to applicants.

The City has also streamlined the formerly disjoined process and reduced the potential for human error.

“Avolve automating our plan review made it possible for the applicant to upload the plan directly, and have it go through the review cycles without us having to download it. That has been a huge time saver and also removed a lot of the potential for human error,” said Perez.

One of the most valuable features has been the ability to track review status in order to support accountability. “The most beneficial feature is the ability to track who’s reviewing an item,” Perez said.

“The status report, which tells you where a review is in the process, who’s looking at it, and how long it’s been in their queue, is probably one of the most clicked items,” he added.

With ProjectDox, public residence and commercial business owners have transparency into the plan status and can access their tasks directly, which “really helped fix the accountability between the contractor, design professional, and us,” said Perez.

ProjectDox has also transformed record accessibility. Rather than requiring visitors to come to City Hall to view documents in person, the system now provides secure, permanent digital access.

“With Avolve, you can grant a user view-only access,” noted Perez. “For example, if an architectural firm is checking on the design of an architect who no longer works there, we can just add them to the view and they have access to the documents, the review comments, everything,” he said.

ProjectDox Impresses with Collaborative Efforts

Aside from ProjectDox’s features and functionality, Perez said the Avolve team’s willingness to find creative solutions and collaborate with partners has been particularly impressive to him.

“My favorite part of the whole process was seeing the cooperation between the various stakeholders to make things happen that didn’t exist prior,” Perez said. “It’s been a very good partnership with Avolve, and we really appreciate them.”