SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to integrate the Planning and Public Works departments, a move officials say will streamline services and improve customer service.
Officials will immediately begin creating the new department, called Community Development and Infrastructure Department, with full integration expected within one year, said Public Works Director Matt Machado.
The two departments have been “co-located” on the fourth floor for decades, Machado said.
“It’s really benefited us quite well,” he said. “The adjacency has allowed coordination and collaboration, which has benefitted all the services that we provide. We’re looking to further the coordination and collaboration through the integration.”
The centerpiece of the new department will be the Unified Permit center, whose focus on customer service, pre-application clearances and real-time plan checking is an answer to years of complaints from residents who have battled mountains of red tape as they navigated the County’s notoriously Byzantine rules.
“With one counter having our Public Works staff and our Planning staff working shoulder to shoulder and working together on process improvement, we expect that our goals will be met,” Machado said.
