“We have become an appealing destination for both commercial and residential developers,” said Steve Crosby, County Administrator. “Our aggressive marketing efforts to attract high-quality businesses resulted in a record high in commercial construction in 2004, and we continue to draw a diverse group of industries to the county.”

To assist staff in reviewing the large number of site plan and subdivision plans that are submitted by developers, the County issued a Request for Proposals on July 1, 2005 to obtain consulting services of an independent contractor. The contractor will be required to attend all meetings at the County associated with reviews, conduct field visits, and to ensure all reviews are accurate and comply with County requirements. In addition, the contractor will be required to complete reviews within three weeks. The contract with the consultant will be for a three-year period, with an option to review for two additional one-year periods for a total of five years.

The idea to outsource came from the County’s Planning Redesign Team, which is a group of staff members from a number of County departments and private-sector representatives from the development industry who have been working on improvements to the commercial site plan, subdivision plan, and plat review process for Stafford. The team began working together in November 2003 and has recommended a number of changes to improve the timeliness, efficiency, consistency, and reliability of the plan and plat review process. The team set a goal to have 80 percent of all reviews completed within three weeks. In addition, members developed the Integrated Web Response (IWR) system, an online system that allows Internet users to schedule inspections; cancel inspections; obtain inspection results; determine dates for public hearings and Technical Review Committee meetings; and obtain plan review status. The system is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Development is booming in Stafford,” Mr. Crosby said. “We receive a tremendous amount of plans and are working extremely hard with our business partners to ensure those plans are reviewed in a timely fashion. Our goal is to make the review process thorough and efficient. An independent consultant will assist us in meeting that goal.”

Stafford remains one of the fastest growing localities in Virginia. The county is currently home to 1,842 businesses, including more than 35 defense contractors, and led the Commonwealth with a 13 percent growth in businesses from 3rd Quarter 2003 to 3rd Quarter 2004, adding more than 212 during that time. Over 100 active projects, representing more than 2½ million square feet, will bring more businesses to the county. Additionally, future business parks, representing more than 5 million square feet of Class A office space, include Celebrate Virginia Corporate Campus, North Stafford Business and Technology Park, Riverside, Stafford Commerce Park, Stafford Marketplace, North Stafford Corporate Center and the Quantico Corporate Center, and will add to the county’s commercial base.

The Department of Code Administration, which approves building permits, has kept pace with the growth. It issues, on average, about 1,900 new residential construction permits each year. In 2004, it issued a total of 23,986 permits, which includes new construction permits for both residential and commercial projects as well as permits for alterations such as decks. As of June 2005, it had issued close to 11,000 permits, which includes new construction for residential and commercial projects.

“There is no question that there is a lot of construction taking place within Stafford County,” Mr. Crosby said. “You can see it in almost every part of this community. Clearly, plans are being processed and permits approved. Obviously, we all want projects to move quickly through our plan review and permit process, and we continue working with developers to find ways to make that happen.”  

Proposals from companies interested in assisting with plan reviews will be accepted until July 21, 2005. Anyone requesting additional information or who has questions regarding the Request for Proposals may call the Stafford Purchasing Department at (540) 658-8614.

<back to July 2005 news index