With permitting requirements on the minds of many service providers and state and local governments embarking on BEAD-funded projects, some in the industry have felt the need for more collaboration, planning, and guidance.
A collaborative telecom industry partnership resulted in a newly released paper titled “Permitting Success: Closing the Digital Divide Through Local Broadband Permitting.”
The paper is intended to “help local governments and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) navigate broadband network construction challenges and maximize investments in broadband connectivity for all Americans,” according to a press release provided by Brightspeed, one of the partners on the project.
The project is a result from a national summit on local permitting processes convened by Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy, and the paper was written and published by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, in partnership with the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy, the American Association for Public Broadband, Fiber Broadband Association, Brightspeed, and GFiber.
What it includes
The guide includes case studies; strategic checklists for ISPs, local governments, and state and federal agencies, with three categories in mind: fostering partnerships between the permit seeker and the permitting authority, maximizing resources available to the permitting authority, and ensuring transparency and consistency in the permitting process.
The project will be explored during an episode of FBA’s Fiber for Breakfast on September 25, at 10:00am EDT, which you can access here.
Below is a summary of some of the findings:
Fostering Partnership Between the Permit Seeker and the Permitting Authority
To achieve the goal of strong permitting partnerships, the paper stresses the importance of meeting “early and often” to ensure alignment and keep lines of communication open, and establish trust early on.
Secondly, they authors recommend the ISPs and governments communicate openly about the “realities” that exist in rural permitting, e.g. permitting offices in small areas staffed by only one person, or minimizing disruption to residents.
Additionally, they recommend that ISPs be forthright about the timelines, methods, etc. of the build, and that municipalities are equally forthright about capacity for permitting and inspection.
Maximizing Resources Available to the Permitting Authority
The paper outlines what the group believes could and should be done to maximize resources in the permitting process.
It stresses the importance of acquiring additional resources from a variety of sources to increase staff, finding, etc. wherever possible.
It also suggests ensuring resources are being used appropriately, streamlining and coordinating to reduce resource inefficiency, and to maximize the “return on investment” by acquiring data insights from the permitting process.
Ensuring Transparency and Consistency in the Permitting Processes
For the third “finding,” the paper encourages modernizing and digitizing the application process, if possible. “To the extent possible, local governments should accept electronic submissions, utilize e-permitting portals, and provide regular updates about the status of applications.”
The full paper
The paper also includes a conclusion of the findings and several case studies that highlight real-world examples. These are covered in detail within the report, for example, Leawood, Kansas’ permitting department is highlighted in a case study that shows what they’ve done to modernize the permitting process, among other things
To read the 69-page paper, click here, and more information can be found on the Benton website.
