Also released this week by the Alliance are a number of tools for state and local governments to use to enhance public safety and reduce the regulatory cost of construction. These include:

• model streamlining enabling legislation and streamlining processes;

• model software procurement guidelines; and

• connections to jurisdictions that are successfully using online permitting processes, handheld devices for field inspections, and other hardware and software.

Developed by the Alliance’s Technology and Planning and Coordinating Task Forces, these tools are successful regulatory streamlining processes and programs from throughout the United States, including programs in the states of California, Oregon, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois, New York, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Washington.

The Alliance’s "Business Case for Streamlining" provides building departments and elected officials at the state and local levels with brief cases of the significant savings being achieved by government and industry through the effective use of information technology in streamlined building regulatory processes. For example, the nation’s largest chip manufacturer, Intel, has reported that regulatory delays on $2 billion projects have cost that firm up to $1,000,000 a day and that the efficiency of a state’s building regulatory process has a significant impact on the firm’s selection of the site of its future production facilities.

A 42-member public-private sector partnership, the Alliance was formed during the summer of 2001 at a meeting co-hosted by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards (NCSBCS). The Alliance’s mission is to enhance our nation’s public safety and economic competitiveness by using information technology to help streamline the nation’s building regulatory process enabling our construction industry to "build faster, better, safer and at less cost." NCSBCS serves as secretariat to the Alliance. Information on the Alliance and each of the above tools are found on the Alliance’s portion of the NCSBCS website – www.ncsbcs.org.

Among the Alliance’s members are: American Institute of Architects (AIA), Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA), International Code Council (ICC), National Association of Counties (NACo), National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), National Governors Association (NGA), National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), Council for Excellence in Government (CEG), FIATECH, U. S. Conference of Mayors, U. S. Department of Energy, General Services Administration, U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Fannie Mae.

Future work products of the Alliance include:

• work on developing a prototype of a secure database for first responders of as-built designs, evacuation plans, and other key contact information;

• model interoperability guidelines for procuring hardware and software by state and local building departments;

• a cost/benefit analysis matrix to measure savings to home builders and consumers by building in communities with streamlined regulatory processes; and

• draft criteria for a proposed series of grants to states and localities to fund regulatory streamlining initiatives.

The work of the Alliance is funded by in-kind contributions from its members and grants from the White House Office of Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Construction and Buildings.

The work products of the Alliance and demonstrations of software and hardware being used in building departments will be showcased during the Alliance’s Third National Forum on Building Smarter in the Digital Age in Portland, Oregon, October 20, 2003. The Forum is a part of the joint NCSBCS/Association of Major City and County Building Officials (AMCBO) Annual Conference (October 19-22). Visit the NCSBCS website for details.