Macie Kelly / Houston Public Media
Citing successes in Austin and Los Angeles, Harris County leaders last week approved a two-year pilot program to use artificial intelligence to speed up the permitting process for new construction projects in the Houston area.
The AI implementation will act as a precursor for evaluating new building permits in Harris County. Officials with the county’s engineering department said it would make the process quicker, more accurate and easier for the public to use.
Samuel Peña, who serves in the department, said the technology will be used as an automated completeness screening for permits before they go up for review in front of an actual person.
“We’re hoping that it cuts down in the number of times that we go back and forth with the applicant to make sure that it’s complete, that the application is complete before we review it,” Peña said.
County commissioners first directed the department to develop a plan for using AI software for permitting on Sept. 9. Peña during that meeting said that while permit volumes have increased about 20% in the past three years, staffing levels have remained flat.
Engineering department staff conducted site visits and meetings with city of Austin and Los Angeles County staff to understand the scope of AI software tools and the success of the technology implementation. But research conducted by Harris County staff found that few counties across the United States utilize AI for permitting processes, according to county documents.
In Austin, city council members approved a more than $3.5 million contract for the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate building plans last year. City officials there said it would significantly cut down on the amount of time spent reviewing the permits.
The cost of implementing AI for permitting in Harris County would be about $1 million annually, according to commissioners court documents.
Mike Etienne, who serves as the chief of planning and development services for Harris County’s engineering department, said the department is discussing a plan to establish a public-facing dashboard for stronger transparency about the status of the county’s permitting processes.
“Harris County is growing very fast,” Etienne said. “We are growing at about 100,000 residents per year. So we think using AI will speed up the permitting process, which will ultimately help meet the housing demand and economic development.”
Commissioners signaled support for the use of artificial intelligence. Commissioner Lesley Briones raised questions about the success of the programs in other cities, and asked engineering staff to work with the county fire marshal’s office, which has also implemented AI practices.
Commissioner Adrian Garcia, who supported the use of the technology, said he had previously discussed the possibility of merging the county’s permitting process with the city of Houston’s process during the tenure of former Mayor Sylvester Turner.
“When you have things like AI as a conduit to the process, it makes the idea of it better,” he said. “Albeit we don’t have near the amount of regulations that the city of Houston has to contend with, but by the same token, we get this right, the idea of merging the business of the city and the county together, I think makes it much more realistic and achievable and less painless.”
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