The current downturn in the economy has had an impact on building departments and code enforcement agencies throughout the country. The key question is, "what are jurisdictions doing now to prepare themselves to meet the demands of an economic uptick?" Furthermore, when the economic situation improves, what can civic leaders do now to capitalize on an improving economy and attract development dollars? Committing to accreditation of the building department can be a timely investment to position your jurisdiction out front in driving economic revitalization.

With several IAS-accredited building departments having reached their third-year renewal, our experience in returning for on-site evaluations has turned up some interesting results. First, accreditation better prepared building officials to reallocate their staffing assets. They had systems in place that gave them valuable data to analyze for planning on how to maintain their service goals. With standard operating procedures in place, employees had a firm grasp of what was expected as responsibilities changed. Second, with better utilization of public outreach and stakeholder input, two key accreditation requirements, they were able to gauge the potential impact of their decisions and had a useful barometer to measure performance.

In numerous interviews with design professionals, contractors and developers that interact with IAS-accredited departments, there were several common points raised. First, all felt that their dealing with the building departments had significantly improved over the last three years. Customer service had improved through better communications. End users of the department's services stated that their access to information was better and they experienced better turnaround times on projects. They stated that their submitted plans were subject to a thorough review that resulted in fewer problems showing up at the point of inspections. They also said that the improved ability of the building department to provide timely and clear code interpretations facilitated needed changes and reduced project delays. Overall, downtime on their projects was limited which resulted in greater savings.

Competition for development dollars will be fierce. Jurisdictions that can boast to developers of an IAS-accredited building department will have a decided edge over those who do not. As construction activity increases, the ability of a building department to have an accredited staff working at the highest level of professionalism will provide benefits towards the encouragement of development as well as the assurance of a safe-built environment.