County Executive Seeks To Move Business Growth Needle
Braveboy Announces Elevate Prince George’s And DPIE Fast Tracks
By Raoul Dennis
“What I announced today was that we have a small business review section of a DPIE that is now churning out permits for those small projects, 5,000 square feet or less, in 10 days,” said County Executive Aisha Braveboy to a captivated audience of over 50 small, medium and corporate business executives at the September 10 meeting of the Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable.
“It used to take several months,” she said.
There was a hush over the room as she explained her plans to fix a problem that none of her predecessors were able to successfully confront: the timing process in getting development plans through in Prince George’s County.
The following is a direct excerpt from her remarks:
What we have done working with DPIE and our new chair of Park and Planning, as well as our planning director and the various stakeholder agencies that are involved in the review of developments.
We have developed a process where the most complex projects can get to entitlement and permit within six months. Six months. What used to take 16 months or more, for the most part, will now take 6 months. That will allow us to be more competitive. It will allow us to get those projects moving, attract investment, attract the type of retail we want, because oftentimes businesses, they have options. They don't want to wait. Neither do I. [laughs]
One of my other attributes that may not be as nice as the smile, but I'm impatient, I like getting things done. We were able to work through a partnership to get things done. We are also, in the next few months, we will be working with our county council to propose new zoning laws so that we can get it to the 21st century with our zoning process.
That's what I'm saying. That's what I believe. I know that all of you believe as well. We started this administration by saying that we are going to stay true to the values, to what I told the people at Prince George's side, I would do, starting with unifying Prince George's County. When I walked in, we had a backlog of about 28,000 311 complaints. Everyone told me 311 didn't work. I said, you know what? 311 works. I'm learning. It works. You can call. You can lodge a complaint. The question is what happens after.
Through no one's fault. I think it's just as we are building new systems within the county, we always have to look at what are the best practices, what are other things that we needed to put in place in order to make 311 seem real, or at least what was advertised about 311 a reality to people. What we realized is that there were agencies that really needed additional resources and additional direction on what to do with these complaints. They were saying, you know what? It's not late. We have up to 365 days to resolve that complaint.
I said, well, you know, the complaint is overdue the day that the call comes in because the resident is already upset. We're going to have to look at it that way. We were able to find some money to put into public works, to DOE, and to DPIE, and work with the revenue authority to address the abandoned car issue. What you will see around the county, and I've seen it, is you'll see an improved environment, less trash on the streets, more aggressive street sweeping, as well as mowing and tree-trimming.
The reason I use Elevate as the language about what we're doing in Prince George's County is because I stand on the shoulders of all of those who came before me, and everyone had a good idea, and everyone was working to improve Prince George's County. The job of any leader when they come in is to leave a place better than they found it. Not that it was found in a lost place, but maybe it needed some improvements, and every place does. When you look at what was done in value, the hard work that was put into where you are now, and then to think, okay, now how do I take that to the next level?
That's what Elevation is all about. Elevation is looking at where we are and seeing where we can go, and bringing people and processes and resources together to make it happen. I'm proud to say that we've put a pretty large dent in the backlog. I won't say what we've done because we're going to be talking about that in our 100-day speech, but let me tell you, it's been very significant. We've been able to employ small businesses throughout Prince George's County to assist us with filling potholes, with being on the ground, cleaning up lots. There was one lot, there were 450 tires that were dumped on a lot there for over 368 days.
Boy, those residents were very happy that we elevated that area. That's something that will not be only one or two lots. We've been doing that throughout the county. We'll talk about that at a later date. ”
