The development community now has a one-stop shop in Hall County for development-related permits and approvals.
Hall County’s Planning Department has been reorganized and renamed “Planning and Development” in an effort to streamline the development permitting process.
“This puts Hall County on track to accomplish one of the short-term action items within our Strategic Plan,” Hall County Administrator Jock Connell said. “It also provides one primary area for accountability and responsibility for development plan review.”
County divisions that currently fall under the Planning and Development umbrella include Business License, Building Inspections, Development Review, the Gainesville- Hall Metropolitan Planning Organization (GHMPO), Geographic Information System (GIS), and Planning & Zoning-- all of which are located on the third floor of the Hall County Government Center on Browns Bridge Road.
The new one-stop shop also includes the integration of engineering services under a Development Review Manager who helps walk the developer through the review process, ensuring information is effectively shared and communicated in a timely manner between various entities and the developer.
“We feel confident that this will help centralize the external/developer/builder interaction that is associated with the development review process,” said Connell.
He said the change will officially go into effect with the start of the new fiscal year July 1; however, the department has already begun operating under the new structure. Srikanth Yamala is the Director of Planning and Development.