Plan Review and Project Management Software

The Vendor is required to provide a secure, cloud-based software platform that manages applications for planning, zoning, and site development permits.
- The platform shall facilitate electronic submission, review, tracking, and case management, including reviewer comments, approvals/denials, and related workflow functions.
- The system must support the Town’s multi-department review and regulatory processes, including concurrent review, deadline management, internal coordination, and applicant transparency.
- The system must also support coordination with advisory boards and decision-making bodies such as the Town Council, Planning Commission, Board of Zoning Appeals, Board of Architectural Review, and Windover Heights Board of Review.
- The system shall allow for routing of applications to these bodies, tracking of review status and outcomes, scheduling notifications, and generation of associated decision and approval documents.
- Applications must be received, processed, distributed, reviewed, and tracked from initial submission through project completion, including bond management, construction inspections, and final close-out.
- The system should also provide reporting capabilities to support performance monitoring and facilitate process improvements.
- Must include acquisition of the software; configuration and implementation to full operational status; data mapping and migration (if applicable); training; and ongoing support.
- Must provide a structured implementation plan with defined milestones and staffing continuity.
- The system must allow both internal staff and external applicants to access appropriate project status information and documentation, and shall include an option for non-applicant members of the public to view project status information, with appropriate limitations on accessible content.
- Ease of use, administrative control, and reliability are critical. The Town places high importance on both staff functionality and public-facing usability.
- The system must fully support internal Town workflows and is not required to integrate with Fairfax County systems. However, the Town welcomes solutions that offer optional integration or data exchange capabilities with external systems, provided such functionality is clearly described and does not introduce additional complexity or risk to implementation.
- Software Features
• Electronic plan review using the latest versions of Bluebeam Software or equivalent PDF editing software
• Scalability and flexibility to accommodate the wide range of application and plan types
• Cloud-based document sharing and management
• Ability to upload various types of file types including but not necessarily limited to PDF, jpeg, and GIS data
• Mobile app access for mobile platforms
• Security Scanning and mitigation from Malware or viruses
• Disaster Recovery Plan to recover data
• Electronic stamping of a single page, multiple pages within a range, and/or all pages within a plan set using stamps that are secure, user-defined, and customizable but cannot be copied or manipulated post-approval
- Administration
• Flexibility for Town staff to create and administer various types of workflows for different types of plans and projects
• Allow for concurrent plan review by multiple reviewers
• Allow different review deadlines for different submissions, workflows, and reviewers
• Ability for the Town to build in exclusions for holidays (including Town holidays) from review deadlines or other project milestones
• Manage revisions at various timelines throughout the project
• Flexibility to re-assign tasks to other users
• Control workflows and permission levels of staff
• Ability to control what the applicant can submit, view, and change in an application
• Ability to distribute new submissions and resubmissions to appropriate reviewers/staff with all associated documents
- The project management steps should include options for all, or a variety, of the following:
• Pre-application Meeting / Application
• Legislative Action Tracking
• Proffer, Provision or Development Condition Tracking
• Plan Review
• Permit review and issuance
• Legal Document / Agreement Review
• Bond Management, issuance, reduction, and release.
• Fee tracking
• Escrow Tracking
• Construction inspections
• Final review approval documents, such as Zoning Approval Letters, and Occupancy Permits for residential and commercial uses
• Project Close-out
- Ability for the applicant to submit recertification of project elements after project completion, over multiple intervals of time
- Communication, Reporting, and Access
• Create comment letters and reviewer plan markups
• Ability to control access to users and allow users to grant access to their projects
• Reporting capabilities that allow for running detailed reports for monthly and or yearly budgeting and analysis
• Track the status and history of a project and provide on-demand reporting and summary statistics
• Notifications to applicants when reviews are complete, or other milestones are met or pending
• Communication with applicants by email and/or chat feature within the software, including replies from the applicant
• Filter option when searching for projects
• Alert reviewers of upcoming scheduled deadlines
• Identify properties that have violations and show a note to reviewers on any submitted applications that there is an open violation
• Ability to track delinquent applications as well as the ability to alert staff of dormant or inactive projects
• Ability to permit non-applicant members of the public to view status of projects, and for Town staff to choose which features are visible to the general public.