In July 2024, the City of Vacaville engaged consultant Baker Tilly to conduct a comprehensive review of its development review process. The development review process encompasses all activities in the City of Vacaville that involve obtaining City approval to make changes to the built environment, i.e. building permits, planning entitlements, encroachment permits, public improvement plans, and subdivisions.

The project focused on identifying opportunities for process improvement, enhancing customer service, and streamlining operations pertaining to development review. The review was focused on the Community Development, Public Works, and Fire departments and other City departments that also participate in the process such as Parks & Recreation and Utilities. Workload, organization, and procedures were analyzed.

The overarching goal of the initiative is to foster a more efficient and user-friendly experience for both staff and the public. The Final Report is available for reference.

The Plan Check Express program, launched on August 19, 2025, offers expedited plan review for eligible commercial and residential projects, helping streamline the permit process and keep projects moving forward. Plan Check Express includes:

• TI Tuesday – exclusively for commercial tenant improvement projects, conducted online only.
• Residential Wednesday – for residential projects, offering both online and in-person appointment options.

This program is designed for customer convenience and efficiency, providing faster turnaround times through scheduled over-the-counter or online reviews for qualifying permits. The service can also be used for customers seeking code advice. To date, 23 appointments have been facilitated and many have resulted in issued permits. Action Item #1 is considered complete and the program will be further refined based on customer feedback and staff observations.

All other items due by October 30, 2025 have been launched and are on schedule. Work has also commenced on longer-term items. Notable work on action items includes:

Action Item 2: Launch etrakit and electronic plan check for Building permit submittals.  etrakit was launched in May 2025 for Community Development permitting services and will be further built out by December 30, 2025. This action item is considered complete, because the system is functional and the City no longer requires paper plans for Building permit submittals, but it will be further enhanced in the short time ahead.

Action Item 3a: Application Completeness Phase 1. Existing checklists with edits are under review in preparation for a final round of internal review ahead of Phase 2, where customer feedback on completeness checklists will be elicited and incorporated. The team is on track to meet the October deadline.

Action Item 4: Processing Timeframes & Uniform Plan Review Times. Work on this item kicked-off in early September, and was followed by meetings with each department to delegate tasks and identify individual action items. Next steps include reviewing timelines provided by staff members, creating a matrix, and building consensus. The team is on track to meet the October deadline.

Action Item 6: Implement development permitting fees and calculations within the etrakit system. Calculate fees in advance of permit approval. City staff met with Central Square and Client First to pursue the most cost effective and efficient way to accomplish this action item. A contract has been executed with Client First and a fee calculation tool will be made available to the public in December 2025.

All action items in the Immediate category have been substantially completed. These include:

Action Item 1: Plan Check Express - Tenant Improvement Tuesday and Residential Wednesday (Complete and underway). This program went live on August 19, 2025. This service provides expedited plan review for eligible commercial and residential projects, streamlining the permit process by reducing review times. To date, 54 appointments have been facilitated. Action Item #1 is complete and in early 2026, the program will be further refined based on customer feedback and staff observations.

Action Item 2: Launch eTRAKiT and electronic plan check for Building permit submittals (Complete). eTRAKIT was launched in May 2025 for Community Development permitting services and will be further built out by December 30, 2025. This action item is considered complete, because the system is functional and the City no longer requires paper plans for Building permit submittals. Public Works will go live with TRAKIT for their applications in January 2026.

Action Item 3a: Application Completeness Phase 1 (Complete); and Action Item 3b. Application Completeness Phase 2 (Underway and on schedule). Staff prepared edits to the City’s planning application checklists and provided a project update at the quarterly housing developers meeting, completing Phase 1 of this action item. On November 13, 2025, the draft revised checklists were shared with a group of regular customers who utilize them to elicit feedback. This represents progress on Action Item #3b, which will be concluded on schedule by the end of January 2026. Customer feedback on completeness checklists will be collected and incorporated, and the final revised checklists will be published on the City’s web site.

Action Item 4: Processing Timeframes & Uniform Plan Review Times (Complete; follow ups planned). Work on this item kicked off in early September and was followed by meetings with Community Development and Public Works Departments to delegate tasks and identify individual action items. Processing timelines were developed by each lead department and shared with team members. The new processing schedules have been shared internally and as follows:

• Building Division Plan Review Timeframes
• Planning Division Plan Review Timeframes
• Public Works and Development Engineering Plan Review Timeframes

While this Action Item is considered substantially complete, a follow-up item will be to track and report on the City’s performance in meeting these timelines. Reporting will be launched within the first quarter of 2026.

Action Items in the Near-Term are either complete or underway, as discussed further below.

Action Item 5. Update the Project Review Committee Process (Underway and on schedule). Staff kicked off the PRC update in September 2025, on schedule, and will complete this item on time by April 26, 2026. Since the Council gave staff direction to implement the Process Improvement Action Plan, staff made minor interim improvements to PRC while working on the larger update project. These include changing the location of the PRC meeting from Zoom-based to hybrid-format to allow City staff to meet in person while allowing staff from other agencies, and ancillary staff, to attend via Zoom. Public Works, Utilities, Fire, and other reviewers have been provided more time to review projects within the 30-day review cycle before providing comments to Planning so that a timely 30-day review letter is issued. Staff will continue to meet, identify changes that are consistent with the desired outcomes identified in the Final Action Plan, and implement the changes.

Action Item 6. Implement development permit fees and calculations within the TRAKIT system (Substantially Complete; follow-ups planned). After significant efforts working with the software vendor, CentralSquare, and the City’s consultants, it has been determined that the TRAKIT platform is incapable of calculating permit fees within the system. To address business needs for customers, staff has taken a two pronged approach: 1) developed an online permit estimating tool that will provide customers with detailed fee estimate information for various project types; 2) developed detailed fee estimate worksheets that allow customers to provide detailed information so that staff can provide accurate fee estimates. The estimator tool will be beta-tested by key customers in January 2026 with an anticipated go live date in February 2026. In the first quarter of 2026, staff will investigate other process improvements that can expedite the fee estimation process.

Action Item 7. Develop administrative procedures for staff using TRAKiT and provide training to fully implement the system (Complete; follow-ups planned). This action item is complete. When Public Works goes live with TRAKIT in January 2026, Community Development staff will work with Public Works to identify any additional training needs or administrative procedures that will ensure that TRAKIT use across departments supports the efficiency of the City’s development review process.

Action Item 8. Web site updates (Substantially Complete). This action item is substantially complete. However, due to the new laws pertaining to accessibility of information on websites, the City will be further evaluating all web pages for compliance and this may result in further streamlining improvements.

Action Item 9. Improve internal communication between City Manager and development review Directors (Complete and underway). For the past six months, the City Manager has facilitated a monthly Development Strategy meeting with development review leads to ensure cross-departmental communication. The City Manager has also established weekly meetings of the Senior Leadership Team, which provides more regular opportunities for formal and informal collaboration.

Action Item 10. Develop a measurement tool to track customer satisfaction and routinely report results (Underway). The Public Relations team has developed an initial draft survey which is under internal review. This item is considered underway and will be completed on time by April 29, 2026.