Subject:
Title
Approval, re: Amend Contract with Accela Inc, to Include ePermitHub Digital Plan Room
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Fiscal Impact:
100% of the fiscal impact will be allocated from Building permitting fee revenues. There will be no General Fund allocation.
Implementation Fees (in addition to current obligations under contract):
FY26: $57,000.00
Annual License Fees:
FY26: $105,498.29
FY27: $173,250.00
FY28: $181,912.50
FY29: $191,008.13
Dept/Office:
Planning & Development
Requested Action:
Recommendation
It is requested that the Board of County Commissioners (1) authorize staff to negotiate with Accela Inc, to make necessary amendments to its contract (and related documents) with Accela, Inc, to integrate ePermitHub into the previously-authorized modernization project and licensing; and (2) authorize the County Manager to execute order forms, agreements, task orders, change orders, modifications, and amendments, provided that the cost is not to exceed the figures listed in the fiscal impact of this report; and (3) Authorize the County Manager to execute all necessary budget amendments (BCRs).
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Summary Explanation and Background:
On July 23, 2024, the Board of County Commissioners authorized Approval to Enter into Negotiations for Accela Civic Platform Cloud Services Licenses, and for Associated Migration and Modernization Project (see attached Board Action Memo and executed contract). The Accela software serves as the backbone of the County’s permitting and development application processes and is utilized for routing applications to the appropriate agencies and individuals for review and approval. As part of the modernization project, the contract with Accela, Inc. includes expanding public access to online applications and enabling applicants to submit additional documents based on staff requests.
Presently, Building permit and Zoning applications are available for online submission through Accela’s Citizen Access Portal. This availability follows Florida Statute which mandates that Building applications must be able to be submitted electronically, including attachments and drawings. Currently, nearly 93% of the County’s Building permit applications and 45% of Zoning applications are received through online submission. This shift toward online submission and review has resulted in shorter application review times as mandated by Statute.
It is imperative that the development process continue to become more efficient. Approximately 24,000 Building permits alone were processed in 2025, and it has become more important than ever that we increase our reviewers’ productivity and efficiency in processing these permits given increasingly stringent State mandated review timeframes. One of the key areas of this process is plan review and, as virtually all plans are now reviewed electronically, a key need for dedicated plans review software has been identified.
Subsequent to the County entering into its contract with Accela to modernize its software, Accela acquired ePermitHub, one of the leading vendors in this area, and has integrated it directly into the Accela platform. This plug-in is fully embedded into Accela and the Citizen Access portal where online applications are submitted, ensuring a seamless user experience and negating the need for additional staff training on a secondary interface.
An example of the increased efficiency and effectiveness that is expected with this plug-in involves the processing of digital seals and signatures. Whether submitted online or on paper, many of the applications routed through Accela require documents containing the professional seals and signatures of architects, engineers, and surveyors. Historically, these professionals provided paper documents with embossed or inked seals accompanied by ink signatures. As applications have become available to the public online, there has been a shift toward the utilization of Digital Signatures and seals, and paper is now seldom submitted for these applications. These digitally signed documents are reviewed by staff electronically, and reviewers now utilize digital stamps for the approval process.
Although the rise of digital application review has resulted in greater productivity and availability, this shift has created new, unique issues for staff to address. Professionals creating these documents must meet the specific Digital Signature requirements established for their profession. Consequently, intake staff currently conduct a manual review of every Digital Signature to ensure validity and authenticity. Printing documents with Digital Signatures invalidates the signatures, making ink stamping an unacceptable alternative. The consequences of ill-configured Digital Signatures include delays in both processing and approval times. Additionally, Digital Signatures present a challenge for sorting and organizing when changes have been made. Historically, when reviews were conducted on paper documents, individual pages could be swapped out and compiled for approval. Currently, the ability to swap out pages is limited by file restrictions resulting from Digital Signatures. Large projects, which have increased in number in recent years, generally require many files, resulting in some instances of hundreds of document files being stored within the same Accela tab. To minimize confusion and difficulty during approval, staff will ask for entire files containing multiple pages, even when only one or two pages may need corrections. This issue not only is frustrating for public users, but it increases costs to the County for file storage.
The ePermitHub digital plan review software streamlines the application review process by automating the validation of professionals’ Digital Signatures, blocking invalid signatures from submission. It also supports plan approval stamps without invalidating Digital Signature; versioning of plan sheets on the fly; and introduces a ‘Plan Room’ to differentiate documents under review from those previously reviewed.
Should the Board approve the requested action, Planning and Development staff will work with Accela to amend its contract and integrate implementation of ePermitHub into its ongoing modernization efforts, with final completion expected in October 2027.
Clerk to the Board Instructions:
Please send a copy of the Board action memo to Planning & Development and Central Services.