The Peoria City Council started looking at the way its does planning, zoning, and code enforcement business during a work session last night. Peoria City Planning and Zoning staff offered more than a dozen areas and proposed ways to simplify how the city handles issues including signage, parking, and application processes including the use of technology.  

Peoria City Manager Patrick Urich says it’s about trying to make a more customer friendly government that allows citizens to get through the development process at the city faster and more efficiently. He says further its necessary, “to live within the limited resources that we now have.”

Urich says it’s important to be strategic with providing the best customer service possible with five urban planners in the department that used to have nine. Last year the city implemented major staff reductions in an effort to repair a hemorrhaging city budget. That included a council directive to merge three city departments into one community development department.  

Urich says the council will work over the next several months to evaluate and implement the proposed changes.