The City of Bellevue is partnering with Govstream.ai to pilot new artificial intelligence tools aimed at improving the permitting process. The effort is focused on reducing permit delays, improving application quality, and helping staff manage growing workloads while maintaining customer service and review quality.

Bellevue and Govstream.ai identified three common challenges in the permitting process. Applicants often struggle to find information before applying. Applications are frequently submitted with missing information. Staff spend significant time working through multiple review and resubmittal cycles.

To address those challenges, the City is piloting several AI tools.

Permit Guide and Email Assistant

The first phase focuses on helping staff and applicants find information more quickly. A Permit Guide chat assistant helps staff research codes, GIS information, permit requirements, and other city resources using official Bellevue data. An Outlook-integrated Email Assistant can summarize email threads, identify applicable codes and site conditions, and draft responses with supporting citations. Bellevue's long-term goal is to make these tools available to the public for 24/7 self-service.

Application Assistant

The next phase focuses on improving application quality before submittal. Applicants upload project documents and the AI helps complete forms, identify missing information, and verify that required documents have been included. The system provides real-time guidance to reduce errors and incomplete applications.

The City is also piloting the Application Assistant with members of the development community. The initial pilot is focused on single-family homes, DADUs, and duplex permits.

First Review

The final phase would use AI to assist with initial permit screening. The goal is to identify basic issues early, route straightforward applications more efficiently, and allow staff to spend more time on complex reviews.

Early Results

The City reports a 30-percent reduction in routine permitting inquiries through its AI tools. Bellevue estimates staff currently spend roughly 20,000 hours annually responding to permit inquiries and hopes to significantly reduce that workload. The City has also established goals to:

• Reduce pre-application inquiry workload by 30 percent.
• Reduce permit resubmittals by 50 percent.
• Improve application quality and shorten review timelines.
• Support new home construction and economic development goals.

City staff reported positive feedback on the tools' efficiency and accuracy. Bellevue emphasized that AI will support, not replace, staff. Human reviewers will continue making permitting decisions while AI assists with research, customer service, application screening, and other routine tasks.

AI Pilot Expansion

Bellevue expects to expand the pilot over time, including a public-facing version of some of the tools later this year. If successful, the effort could improve permit timelines, reduce application corrections, and create a more predictable process for applicants.

For more information, see Bellevue's Innovation Partnership Webpage and the BDC January Meeting Slides.

Is 2017 leaving you black and blue? You're in luck!

And slightly ahead of the curve, too. It so happens that black (in many iterations) and blue are the colors predicted to trend in 2018, according to various paint entities as part of the companies' prestigious color of the year predictions.

Each year, beginning in fall, several paint companies, fashion entities, and design websites begin to predict what they see as the colors that will dominate the various landscapes of the next year. Last year, it was Pantone 15-0343, a lovely yellow-green shade that "evokes the first days of spring." The Pantone Color Institute, which calls itself the "global color authority," may have the final say when all things are said and done, but that isn't stopping companies like PPG Paints, Olympic Paint, Glidden, and Behr from throwing in their hues of choice.

Specifically, PPG Paints has backed their Black Flame concoction, a lighter black with indigo tones launched back in June. Black Flame was the unanimous choice to become the world's "new neutral" by 20 leading color experts around the globe (think secret underground meetings with weird chants and robes).

While the chants and robes may not actually exist, the opinions of opinion makers certainly do. A company's paint color can mean big business, which is a large part of why so many entities throw their choices into the ring and announcements are highly anticipated. At the same time PPG was showing off Black Flame (it's like Zoolander's Blue Steel but EVEN MORE INTOXICATING), Olympic Paint revealed Black Magic, an "often misunderstood neutral" primed to blot out the easy-going grays and pinks of 2017.

Says Dee Schlotter, senior color marketing manager, Olympic Paint: "In past years, consumers have gravitated toward open, airy spaces that are thought to leave room for exposure. However, in the current day, consumers often feel uneasy, restless, or like their privacy is being invaded, so they crave deep, comforting colors that offer a welcomed escape from the chaos of daily life. Olympic paint's Black Magic perfectly satisfies consumers' desire for privacy."

Schlotter continues, "Black Magic can easily make a statement in any home on a front door, window trim, kitchen cabinets, exposed shelving, or even sliding barn doors. It works especially beautifully in a dining room with a bold light fixture."

Not to be outdone, Glidden put its own spin on black, announcing their Deep Onyx as their color of the year. Why? According to Color Marketing Manager Misty Yeomans, "Just like a little black dress, Deep Onyx is a classic, timeless staple." The hue is meant to give off a "less is more" attitude that reflects a minimalist style inside the homes of those in the know.

Stepping out of the shadows is Behr, who boldly announced their first-ever color of the year as In the Moment, a blue-green blend that "Speaks to our society's desire to disconnect and be present," according to Erika Woelfel, vice president of color and creative services at Behr. Grand Central Station commuters on August 9 were certainly living In the Moment, as they were witness to Behr's blue via a virtual reality color video and chats with the company's color experts as they strolled through different rooms of a makeshift home.

While we could talk about trends until we're blue in the face, we'll await the final verdict on which colors clients will consume in 2018.

One thing does still plague the mind, however: How does one become a color expert, exactly?

By MBAKS Senior Policy Analyst Allison Butcher

The unemployment rate for Seattle, Bellevue, and Everett jumped to 14.5% in April, reflecting major job losses due to COVID-19. Statewide, the construction industry lost 81,000 jobs between March and April, a 32.5% drop. Meanwhile, home prices have been holding steady, with year-over-year median home prices up in King and Snohomish counties amid continued low housing inventory.

The Builder's Bulletin is intended to provide a convenient way to track housing in our market and includes information from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, State of the Cities Data Systems, Office of Financial Management, and the Washington State Employment Security Department.

Download this month's report: