Building & Planning Software for Local Government
One Platform for Building Permits, Plan Check, and Land Use Applications
Building and Planning departments handle permits, plan reviews, inspections, conditions, and multi-party communication across many program types. GovOwl will provide a single platform that supports each department, replacing paper, spreadsheets, and disconnected tools with one connected system tailored to how your agency actually works.
We’ll Configure Our GovOwl Modules for Your Building and Planning Departments
We’ll configure GovOwl to your agency. Permits, fees, conditional routing, inspection types, multi-user portals and notice templates are all standard GovOwl building blocks that can be assembled around your existing forms, regulations, and workflow. Small and mid-sized departments get a system that fits exactly how they operate, not a rigid product they’re forced to bend around.
Building Permits and Plan Check
We’ll set up building permit tracking from intake through certificate of occupancy. Plan check will be configured around your reviewers, your conditions, your revision cycles, and your deferred submittals. Reviewers from Building, Planning, Public Works, Fire, and Health will each work their portion in parallel or in sequence, however your team handles it today.
Planning and Land Use
Zoning permits, conditional use permits, variances, subdivisions, and other land-use applications will be set up around your specific approval steps and conditions. Planning approvals will feed directly into Building when a project moves into construction.
Cross-Department Permits
A single permit (an ADU, a septic system, a subdivision) often moves through Planning, Building, and Environmental Health for sign-off. We’ll configure GovOwl to route one permit record across the departments that need to weigh in, with each team seeing only their portion while the full history stays in one place.
Field Inspections
Your building inspectors will work from iPads in the field, online or offline, using inspection forms tailored to your inspection types. Conditions, history, and notes will pull from the permit record and sync when the inspector returns to connectivity. Pass/fail results, photos, and punch lists will be recorded on site and emailed to the contractor immediately.
Public Portal for Applicants
Architects, contractors, and homeowners will apply, pay fees, upload plans, respond to comments, and track status from a single online portal. Each role will see what they need without staff having to relay information by phone or email.
Built on the GovOwl Platform
Your Building & Planning solution will be assembled from the same modules already running across GovOwl: permitting, online payments, online forms and workflow automation, the citizen portal, and the field inspection app. We’ll tailor those modules around your specific Building and Planning workflow. Agencies that already run GovOwl for Environmental Health or Code Enforcement will be able to extend into Building & Planning on the same platform.
Why It Matters
- Replaces paper, email, and spreadsheets across Building and Planning
- Brings clear routing and tracking to plan check
- Gives applicants self-service status and document upload
- Keeps cross-department permits coordinated in one record
- Built around your fees, forms, and workflows, not the other way around
Build For
- Building & Safety departments
- Planning and zoning departments
- Community Development and Development Services divisions
- Small and mid-sized cities and counties needing a unified permit system
Related Functions
Permitting | Inspection Software | Citizen Self Service | Online Forms & Workflow Automation
Get Started
Tell us how your Building and Planning departments work, and we’ll tailor GovOwl to fit.