NEWS RELEASE

(return to Technology Task Force page)

For more information, contact:

Carolyn Fitch  (703) 437-0100

Herndon, VA, February 6, 2002 - To help state and local jurisdictions and the nation’s construction industry to more effectively compete in the global economy, the Technology Task Force of the National Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age will visit San Jose, California, next month to study that region’s highly successful efforts to streamline their building regulatory processes using information technology. The City of San Jose and several neighboring jurisdictions will host the Alliance’s Technology Task Force for a day and a half of meetings on March 18 and 19, 2002.

Established last fall as one of several action items from the May 30-June 1 National Forum on Building Smarter in the Digital Age, the Task Force is charged with assembling, developing, and demonstrating a set of tools that jurisdictions and the construction industry can use to increase the effective use of information technology in the building regulatory process.

The March meeting is the Task Force’s third work session. At previous work sessions held in October and December 2001, the Technology Task Force established their action agenda items for 2002 and received presentations on interoperable hardware and software currently available in the U.S. and overseas. On February 26, the Technology Task Force will unveil on the NCSBCS website (www.ncsbcs.org) the first of several work deliverables--a preliminary listing of hardware and software currently available to jurisdictions for use in their building design and construction review processes.

At the March meeting, the Task Force will review several successful products of the Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Initiative which ten years ago began a collaborative effort among neighboring jurisdictions to enhance that region’s competitiveness in the global economy by streamlining the building regulatory process using information technology. Some of the streamlined processes that the Task Force will review are: on-line building permitting, on-line building plans reviews, one-stop permitting, and the use of PDA’s for field audits of construction projects. The Task Force also will hold a work session on several of their deliverables for 2002. Among those deliverables are:

1. The collection and dissemination of an inventory of information technology currently available to jurisdictions and the construction industry.
2. The distribution of models of best practices of effective uses of information technology to streamline the building regulatory process.
3. The creation for jurisdictions of a minimum set of criteria for hardware and software that should be asked for when obtaining or implementing new information systems.

In response to the events of September 11 and at the direction of the National Alliance’s Steering Committee, the Technology Task Force is also developing a prototype of a proposed secure nationwide state-administered database of the designs and evacuation plans for critical structures.

An update progress report on the activities of the twenty-seven member National Alliance will be issued to the nation’s governors and all Alliance members during the upcoming Winter Meeting of the National Governors Association. Additional information on the Alliance, including a list of its current members, minutes of Steering Committee and the Technology Task Force meetings, a copy of the Alliance’s Action Agenda, a Power Point presentation on the Alliance and other work products, are viewable on the NCSBCS website.

The National Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age is a public and private sector coalition of 27 organizations and governmental agencies formed in the summer of 2001 to work together to use information technology to strengthen our nation’s economy by transforming the nations building regulatory process to enable our construction industry to build "faster, better, safer and at less cost."

The three immediate goals of the Alliance are:

1. Re-stimulate a vital sector of the U.S. economy by using information technology to eliminate regulatory barriers and time delays to the construction process.
2. Through regulatory reform increase the availability to the public and private sectors of affordable, safe, and durable residential, commercial, institutional, governmental, and industrial buildings.
3. Support enhanced homeland security and public safety in the built environment through innovative uses of information technology in the construction and building regulatory processes.

The Alliance is supported by in-kind services and grants from Alliance members which include: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practices, National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), National Association of Counties (NACo), U.S. Conference of Mayors, American Institute of Architects (AIA), Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA), Associated General Contractors of America (AGCA), Fannie Mae, National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), U.S. Department of Energy, U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U. S. Department of Agriculture, General Services Administration, and National Institute of Building Sciences.

For more information on the Alliance visit the NCSBCS website or call Carolyn Fitch at NCSBCS: 703-437-0100, ext. 238.

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National Governors Association under a 21 year-old executive branch agreement.