Improving Development Review

This briefing paper from the University of North Carolina School of Government presents key findings from nine North Carolina cities which undertook a 21-month development review improvement process. The process, modelled after the "best practice benchmarking" approach used in the corporate world, comprised site visits by North Carolina local officials to three leading local governments: Henderson, Nevada; San Diego, California; and Tallahassee, Florida. Participants learned about the host cities' development review processes and debriefed to identify best practices. Seventy-eight strategies were identified, and many of the participating communities have since implemented a number of those practices.