Local and regional planning departments are challenged with overseeing the land management process. There are many different workflow steps that a municipal or county planning department needs to do in order to process applications. AMANDA software improves the planning department’s efficiency by guiding every development application through the process in a speedy manner without errors.
Managing the Land Development Process - AMANDA frees staff from administration so they can focus on their core skills:
· The system can be designed to track revisions to plans as they go through the development review process.
· Automated checklists, which can be standard or mandatory, minimize training for new staff and ensure that mandatory steps are not missed. For each step in the development process, municipal planners can keep on-line notes describing activity details.
· If the staff person responsible for a subdivision application is away co-workers can see the status of the file and a chronological record of events.
· Each “To Do List” item is tied to a specific land management process so planners can organize and meet deadlines, without rushing or forgetting tasks.
· The software helps steer development reviews through public hearings, City Council or Planning Board meetings and onto final recordation.
Electronic Maps and Site Plan - AMANDA can send spatial queries to a GIS system for notifying property owners within a certain radius of a proposed project. The software effortlessly merges documents with addresses, zoning codes and meeting dates to help shrink the notification process from weeks to days. City staff can scan drawings and attach them to the applicant’s file for easy retrieval. The software’s universal image viewer enables architects and planners to email site plans and modify them electronically.
The Map Tab shows an embedded map of the project’s property (ies) and
surrounding area. Users can view and refresh this map-snapshot, without
needing GIS viewing tools installed. The tab also provides predetermined
map layers with a legend. If additional spatial analysis needs to be
performed, it can be done using AMANDA GIS.
Multiple Views of Property Data - AMANDA’s sophisticated property model (containing over 40 standard fields) can be used to track all land use information. This gives municipal planners the ability to analyze development impacts from various perspectives. AMANDA’s security features allow staff to see certain fields relating to their job, while preventing them from seeing data that is unrelated to their business needs.
Track Project Milestones - The Milestone view highlights a specific process that has been completed, such as
“Internal Review” or “Public Hearing.” Business rules activate these “milestone”
processes when preceding tasks are done. Viewing status by milestone gives a much
quicker summary of the project, compared to scrolling through all process substeps.
