OPR - Online Plan Review FAQ

Client FAQ

Getting Started & Costs

How do we get started with SDL’s Online Plan Review? Do we have to set it up with our IT department?

If you would like to get started with SDL’s Online Plan Review, contact planreview@spatialdatalogic.com to get your town set up with access to our system. It’s a web-based process that is accessible from SDL Portal/SDL Online so there is no need to set anything up with your IT department.

What does SDL’s Online Plan Review cost? How does it work with the existing SDL Enterprise License?

The only change with your licensing would be if you do not have a desktop seat for each subcode, you may need additional licenses for each of your subcode officials to access this. If you have a seat for each subcode official, the only fee would be $10 per permit that can be passed along to the applicant or absorbed by the town. We will bill that fee quarterly. Contact us to discuss what is needed specifically for your town.

What if the project does not require a plan review?

You only get charged the $10 per permit fee for work that requires a plan review.

Are permit updates included as part of the $10 cost?

Yes, it’s $10 per permit application and any updates to the master are included as part of that cost. However, if it goes stale or expires, a new application would be needed and another $10 fee would apply.

Legislation Questions

What is the Electronic Permit Processing System Legislation?

New legislation was signed on April 30, 2021 that requires that the DCA establish, develop, implement and administer an “Electronic Permit Processing Review System”. It also says that the DCA must ensure that all municipal enforcing agencies also find and begin using an electronic system within a year.

Electronic Permit Processing Review Systems are defined as an internet-based system that facilitates:

Electronic submission of construction permit applications, plans & specs
Electronic review of applications, plans and specs
Online inspection scheduling
Online information exchanges between the applicant, professionals and the construction department/enforcing agency
24/7 public access for homeowners, contractors and other professionals to submit permit applications and request inspections
When does this go into effect?

The way it is written says this system must be in place within 1 year of the bill being signed. We assume the towns have the same year as the DCA, but we will not know for sure until the DCA shares their interpretation of the law and when it's going to be required for towns using their own system like SDL.

It’s not a lot of time, especially for towns that do not already have any process online, so we recommend that you begin planning for your rollout to ensure the process goes smoothly and you’ve accounted for budget, training and preparing your citizens.

Does the legislation allow municipalities to charge a permit surcharge for up to three years to fund the cost?

There is verbiage in the legislation that references a fee. What that means and how that works is up to the DCA.

Device Questions:

Are you able to complete your plan reviews on a mobile device?

No, you will not be able to complete your reviews on SDL Mobile. To complete your reviews, you will need a larger format tablet, laptop or desktop computer that is connected to the internet and using an acceptable browser.

Can the plan review be done through the inspector's tablet?

Yes, you can complete your reviews on a tablet, but note that a smaller screen size is not optimal. We recommend completing your reviews on a laptop or larger device for the best viewing experience.

Do I need a larger computer screen or iPlan table to do Online Plan Review?

The system is designed to work in an acceptable browser. While iPlan tables or large TVs/Monitors that are connected to a computer have many advantages and are easier to visualize your plans, they are not required. At a minimum, we would recommend a dual monitor setup with a monitor size of 25” or larger.

System & Plan Review Admin Questions

Is there a “gatekeeper” for the initial review of online submissions to ensure correctness prior to assigning the plan review?

We have the completeness review built into the Online Plan Review. Your TA or designated plan review admin should be involved in the initial review to make sure the plans are legible and you have what is needed. Once they accept the plans, it would start the 20-day review clock.

Will the office have the opportunity to do minor corrections to an application?

People are going to fill out their application online, but you still have the chance to review it and communicate any issues or necessary changes back to the applicant.

Will Online Plan Review also include prior approvals such as zoning within the same application? Or will those need to be submitted separately?

All of the prior approval processes are built into our Online Plan Review. The prior approvals are pulled in from the desktop based on the data from the permit application.

On a separate note, SDL is starting to build a similar Online Plan Review system for processes such as zoning reviews, board applications, etc...

Can we proceed with the plan review without prior approval?

If the permit has prior approvals on it, you can go through the online plan review process and complete your subcode reviews without prior approval. But it’s important to note that if you still have an active prior approval, the countdown clock will not start and you will also not be able to stamp the plans until those have been addressed.

Will SDL be adding a process for conditional releases? What about partial releases?

Currently for the conditional release, when you pass a subcode review there is a place to add notes and that would be where you would add your conditional release notes.

As for partial release, we have talked about it but we have had mixed feedback from towns on how to handle this so we would really like more feedback on this process prior to implementing something. In the meantime, this could be treated as either two different applications or an update as a workaround.

Can there be more than one plan review admin?

There will always be one admin who is the overall gatekeeper, but you can add as many town users as you’d like and as long as they have the appropriate desktop permissions they can also do the admin review, add users and release to the public.

Once plans are released, how do we make sure they pay for permits before they can get copies?

If you want to verify that payment was made prior to finalizing the process, you can release the plans and after you’ve confirmed that payment has been received, then you would go back in and apply the stamp to the plans.

Is Online Plan Review going to be connected to SDL Desktop?

The information about the Online Plan Review status and what subcode reviews have been done will get updated as you do them in SDL Desktop. You can also turn on that information in the SDL Portal so the public can see where the process stands.

It’s important to note that while you are in our demo environment, the Online Plan Review system will not talk back to the SDL Desktop, but once you’ve gone live the connection will be there.

Where are the plans stored?

The plans are stored in our cloud environment. We process and optimize the plans, so you can quickly zoom/in and out of the plans without lag. Once the plans are approved, users will be able to access the stamped plans from a link in the SDL Desktop and will also have the option to add them as an attachment. We are waiting to hear from the state on if it stays electronic or still needs to be printed, signed and sealed.

What file format are the plans?

It will be in a PDF format. If needed, we can talk about other ways to bring it into your scanning systems. If the state comes up with another process, we will follow that process.

Can you retain your copies electronically?

We don’t know what the DCA is going to change in terms of laws and policies.

Are the files in the cloud in compliance with the amount of time we are required to keep files?

Once the plan review is complete, the PDF will be brought down into your SDL Desktop and attached to the permit. The process may need to change depending on what rules and regulations the DCA comes out with.

Are applicants required to keep a set of plans onsite like they have in the past?

We don’t have an answer for this. We will wait to see what the DCA guidance will be.

Will plumbers, electricians and HVAC have access to submit their digital seals?

We don’t know what is going to happen with digital seals or how that will work. We are waiting to hear back from the state.

Subcode Review Questions

Can multiple disciplines review the plans at the same time?

Yes, multiple disciplines can go in and complete their reviews simultaneously, however, if you are personally handling multiple subcodes you will have to complete each review independently of one another.

Are there default plan review comments already loaded?

Yes, and you can add your own defaults or use your checklist items to create markups.

Does the system have the ability to do major redevelopment plan reviews?

It’s designed to do as many pages as you need for the same price of $10 per application. That is something we have incorporated and our cloud infrastructure is designed to ramp up to whatever size we need.

Will the plan review admin need to manually assign the subcodes or will it be done automatically by the system?

Whatever subcodes are entered into the Desktop application will carry over to the plan review and be assigned accordingly.

Is there a way to indicate which discipline needs to review each page?

Our system includes two different tools that your municipality can use to indicate which pages need to be reviewed by a specific subcode official. The first tool is called page tags which allows your staff to add a tag such as “Building” to the pages you select. Additionally, there is a plan index feature that can be utilized by the applicant when submitting the plans or can be entered by your plan review admin.

Are there i-codes incorporated into SDL’s system?

ICC premiumACCESS members will have access to the ICC Codes within our Online Plan Review system.

Will the system contain the latest versions of all the state & local codes for each municipality including prior approvals?

Many of the codes are the ICC codes and if you subscribe to their premium access those codes will natively be available to you in Online Plan Review. We also have an integration with General Code who handles a lot of the local codes per town and allows you to access those codes and prior approvals electronically. For the NFPA, NEC and other codes, we do not currently have a way to bring those in electronically. This does not preclude you from manually bringing them into the desktop as quick reference codes to integrate into the checklist items and default markups. We just cannot provide those electronically since they are licensed codes.

Is it possible to switch an internal markup to a public markup?

Yes. You can adjust the markups to be private (just you), internal (just town users) or public (all town/public users associated with the plan review)

What if the project owner only corrects some of the markups, but not all. How is that handled?

The system requires that they address each and every markup prior to submitting the plans back for subcode review.

When using page releases, does every page need at least one approval in order to release the plans?

We made the page release process optional. Some towns want the opportunity to release each of the pages but you can manage this process as you see fit.

Does the countdown clock account for weekends?

Yes. In addition to weekends, federal & state holidays are also not included in the countdown clock. (Note: You can also override the automated clock and use the dates added in the desktop).

Can there be more than one designated review in a subcode? What about vacations?

There is only one subcode official assigned per subcode review, but in the case of vacations, yes you can assign the review to whoever is covering for you.

What about instances where an inspector is able to review the plans but they are not the subcode official?

Inspectors can be added as a “town user” so they can view the plans in our system. If that inspector has desktop permissions to “edit a plan review”, they will also be able to add internal markups for the subcode reviewer and the subcode official can convert the inspector’s markups into public markups. But, only the subcode official of record on the permit will have the ability to add public markups and pass/fail the plans.

What about offices that have multiple building plan reviewers?

Only the subcode official of record on the permit will have the ability to add public markups and pass/fail the plans. Other reviewers with “edit a plan review” permissions can view the plans and add internal markups for the subcode official of record.

Who ultimately releases the plan review? Is it the subcode or can a TA release the plans?

We recommend that your subcodes pass/fail the plans and your plan review admin be the one who releases/denies the plans once all subcodes have completed their reviews.

Webinar Recordings, Guides & Resources

Will the recordings of these sessions be made available to us?

Yes, all of our webinars are recorded and added to the SDL Help Center. These specific sessions can be accessed using the following link. If you have not used the SDL Help Center before, you will need to create an account using your municipal email address.

Will the presentation slides be available to us?

The presentation slides will not be published, but the recordings are available for you to watch which contain live demos and we have also created step-by-step instructions that you can follow if you prefer something printed.

Will there be any webinars for the applicant/public on how they can submit applications?

We are still working on our plans and training materials to roll this out to the applicant/public. We wanted to focus on getting our building users comfortable with the system prior to opening the process up to the public.

Who do I contact with questions?

We created an email box specific to online plan review, permitting and inspection request questions. Email: planreview@spatialdatalogic.com.