Reinventing Business Friendly

About the Program

Category: Planning (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

Richland County, South Carolina, has totally revamped its Development Services processes to provide faster and more efficient service to its customers. This effort was initiated by a staff conducted study completed in August of 2011. Through the implementation of several major improvements, such as consolidating development-related departments into a one-stop shop, reducing the plan review time from 60 days to 12 business days and launching a new interactive website, Richland County has reinvented itself as a business friendly operation. The County transformed from the slowest review process in the state to one of the most efficient, and has completed 100 percent of reviews on time since December of 2011. Essentially, the overall culture of Development Services was changed, and the County convinced the business and development communities that the county had changed. Richland County has also taken a holistic technology approach to revamping the business process among multiple departments involved in land development and permitting. Five legacy systems were replaced by a state-of-the-art GIS based software system, allowing all departments to work together under one platform. This has allowed Richland County to be at the forefront of new technology, to streamline business processes, and to provide excellent customer service to citizens.