Home

Revelstoke, BC, Chooses Clariti Launch to Simplify Community Development Processes

via Business Wire

To help the City accelerate permit approvals and improve the end-to-end permitting experience for customers and staff, Revelstoke, B.C., has selected Clariti’s Launch permitting software and Guide to move its community development processes online. Once live, the new system will be used by the Development Services department, which administers permitting, planning, business licensing, and bylaw enforcement services.

“Revelstoke is a little City with big City problems, and we need a community development system to support that,” said Kenny Gipps, the City’s Manager of Development Services/Chief Building Official.

Because Revelstoke is a resort community, the City sees more commercial building activity than is typical for its size, so development can be quite complex. Over the last five years, the City has experienced exponential year-over-year growth, with its total building permit valuation surpassing $170 million in 2023 due to several large developments, and $83 million in 2024.

Currently, the City doesn’t have permitting software, but Development Services has implemented a semi-digital process that allows customers to fill out PDFs online and email them in along with any plans. They can pay application fees by e-transfer, but after the permit is issued, they pay the final invoice in person. In the back office, staff use BlueBeam for plan markup and fillable PDFs for inspection reports. Kenny explained that while it’s worked as an interim solution, there’s still too much manual admin work for staff and a lack of transparency throughout the process.

With Clariti Launch and Guide, the City’s biggest goals are to:

  • Provide a clear, guided online application process that gives applicants full transparency into the process
  • Automate the permit approvals process from start to finish
  • Reduce the amount of manual administrative work in order to reduce processing timelines and also provide a higher level of service to the community
  • Reduce the back-and-forth between customers and staff
  • Improve the quality of applications by providing applicants with clear, step-by-step instructions using the Guide
  • Reduce the amount of time staff spend manually pulling data and creating reports

Speaking to the functionality that will save staff the most time, Kenny highlighted Launch’s reporting tools and how “you can pull data out with just the click of a button.” He also emphasized process automation and how it will solve many administrative challenges, especially for the department’s two clerks.

As for the Clariti Guide, the city aims to provide a better experience for homeowners and contractors by providing personalized, step-by-step permit application instructions online. Kenny said they plan to merge the Guide with their existing planning application guides, which will not only help improve application quality but also help “provide a higher level of service to the community.”

When comparing different vendors, Kenny explained the Guide was a “big” factor in the City’s decision to move forward with Clariti, as well as Launch’s extensive community development capabilities that go beyond just building permitting. But ultimately, the biggest standout was the level of support provided by Clariti. "Having the Clariti Team lead [the implementation] and support us was a big selling feature," said Kenny. Staff capacity is one of our biggest challenges, especially with all of the legislative changes we've had lately, so having Clariti lead the onboarding was a big piece [in our decision]."

The flexibility of Launch was another key factor in the City’s decision. “It was such a shock for us when we saw that you can actually change workflows yourself,” said Kenny. “It was like, ‘Wow,’ we can edit this on the fly just by dragging and dropping. It was so impressive.”

In addition to editing their own workflows, Development Services will also be able to clone best-practice permit-type configurations from other Clariti customers with Community Templates. Using these ready-made templates could speed up their implementation by 25% or more.

“We’re thrilled to partner with the City of Revelstoke to help solve their administrative challenges,” said Cyrus Symoom, Co-CEO at Clariti. “We know that smaller cities like Revelstoke don’t have the time or resources to implement new permitting software, which is what we are here for — to provide the hands-on support they need.”

About Clariti

Clariti helps governments of all sizes across North America achieve unparalleled efficiency and productivity with configurable community development solutions that include extensive purpose-built processes leading governments use every day. Today, Clariti is the only permitting software vendor solely focused on community development, with a suite of products that includes two different community development platforms for large and small-sized governments, and a pre-application permitting guide. Clariti solutions are trusted by leading governments of all sizes such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Orange County, Tampa, FL, Placerville, CA, Albany, NY, and more. For more information, visit www.claritisoftware.com.

About the City of Revelstoke

Revelstoke is located in southeastern British Columbia, Canada. The City has nearly 9,000 residents and is known for its natural beauty and booming outdoor recreation industry. For more information, visit https://revelstoke.ca/.

Contacts