SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- On Wednesday, the City of Santa Cruz launched a new web application that's supposed to make it easier for businesses to set up shop.
Before today, it could take a business owner up to a month just to be able to go through the permit process.
"A typical business owner would have to go to the Finance Department, the Planning Department, the Public Works Department to fill out forms by hand and submit those to the individual agencies," said Scott Collins, assistant to the Santa Cruz city manager.
Now, there's a one-stop-shop to be able to do everything from accessing city forms and fees, and you can do it all in one web session.
The city partnered up with Code for America to create the new web application, called "OpenCounter."
"Now we've distilled that to one online session ," Collins said. "It makes it so much easier and we feel it will move our permitting process along much quicker."
He said that could open up the door to more businesses that otherwise wouldn't come on board because of long, lengthy permitting processes.
"This is really geared toward those that have great ideas and we want to get them to open their business as soon as possible and make it as easy as possible for them to be able to do that," Collins said.
The web application cost $150,000. The city paid $100,000, and about $50,000 was received in donations to cover the remainder. A private developer would have charged up to $500,000, Collins said.
The Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, Scotts Valley, Watsonville, Los Gatos, and the Silicon Valley Economic Development Alliance donated money.
OpenCounter can be accessed here: http://opencounter.cityofsantacruz.com
