Managing Plan Review Cycles

The plan coordinator manages the plan review cycle, which is a series of plan reviews for a permit or planning application completed by multiple reviewers.

You manage review cycles on the Plan Reviews page in the permit or planning application details. This topic discusses how to manage plan review cycles, including these actions:

• Add plan review cycles.

• Add plan review due dates.

• Finalize or cancel plan review cycles.

• Switch between different plan review cycles and view cycle history.

• Record time for plan reviews.

Your agency can conduct reviews that contain both manual cycles and electronic cycles using Bluebeam Studio™. For information about starting a Bluebeam Studio™ Session during a review cycle, see Working with Electronic Plan Reviews.

Here's how to access the Plan Reviews page for a permit or planning application.

• From the Plan Reviews console for agency staff in the classic user interface:

  1. Select the Plan Reviews tile on the Agency Springboard.

  2. Select a plan review row on the All Reviews, Open Reviews, or Unassigned Reviews tabs.

     You can also select a row in the Pending tab of console. The plan review rows here appear for permits in the plan review status even though there are no open plan review cycles, and the applicant has uploaded a new attachment.

• From the Permit Applications or Planning Applications list page in the Redwood Experience:

  1. Select the row of the application that you want to work on.

  2. In the left navigation panel of the permit or planning application details, select Progress > Plan Reviews.

Tip:

You can access this page on a mobile device as well as on a laptop or desktop computer.

Adding Plan Review Cycles

The first cycle of a plan review is automatically created when a permit technician or assigned planner moves the transaction into Plan Review status. If you manually create a plan review cycle before the Plan Review status, the system won't automatically create the cycle. You can add subsequent cycles until the plan review is complete.

Review cycles can be added and updated in application statuses in addition to Plan Review as long as the permit or planning application isn't in a presubmittal or terminal status. For more information, see Plan Review Overview.

1. On the Plan Reviews page, click the Add New button to add a new plan review cycle.

2. On the New plan review drawer, enter the review cycle name.

   If the option to Enable Default of Plan Review Name is turned on for the agency, the default review cycle name is the name of the previous cycle. Otherwise, there is no default name. You can update the cycle name at any time on the Plan Reviews page by selecting Edit Plan Review Details in the cycle action menu.

3. Select the checkbox to Copy reviewers from most recent cycle if you want to copy the reviewers from the previous cycle, regardless of whether the previous cycle was manual or electronic.

4. If your agency integrates with Bluebeam Studio™, you have two additional options:

   • Copy marked up documents from most recent cycle - Select to copy documents from the previous cycle if the cycle was electronic.

   • Create studio session - Click to start a Bluebeam Studio™ Session, which makes the new cycle an electronic one.

     You can also start a Studio Session later, while the review cycle is in progress. For more information about working with an electronic plan review cycle, see Working with Electronic Plan Reviews.

5. Click the Add button on the drawer.

   Depending on your agency's plan review setup, plan review cycle and reviewer department due dates may be generated. Due dates may be automatically generated when a plan review is manually added or a first plan review cycle is automatically created.

   The Review Cycle tab appears with review information and cycle-specific sections, including Reviewers, Documents, Comments, Record time.

The cycle must be canceled or completed before you can add another new plan review cycle. That is, you can have only one active plan review cycle at a time. You can switch between multiple cycles by selecting the cycle tabs, for example, Review Cycle 1 or Review Cycle 2, and so on, to view reviewer and other cycle details.

Automatically Adding Plan Review Due Dates

Agencies can configure the plan review system to automatically calculate cycle and plan reviewer department due dates for a permit or planning application type. The due dates are populated on the Plan Reviews page in the application details and on the Plan Reviews console page when a plan review is created. The generated due dates can also be manually updated.

An Overdue icon appears next to review cycles and due dates that are past due:

A Reviewer Due Date After Cycle Due Date clock icon appears for reviewer due dates that have been configured to be after the cycle due date:

Due dates are calculated using time rules and time policies set up by your agency. Time rules can be leveraged to define the maximum review time for first or subsequent reviews as well as due dates based on plan reviewer department turnaround times. You associate the time rules with the permit type or planning application type so that different application types can have different due dates. For more information about using time rules to calculate due dates, see Setting Up Plan Review Due Dates.

If there are no time rules but the agency has turned on the Enable Cascading Cycle Due Date switch for permit or planning application plan reviews, then agency staff with permissions have two options for copying the cycle due date to the reviewers:

• Click the Actions menu button and select Edit Plan Review Details. On the Plan review details drawer, select Copy this due date to plan reviewers.

• Click the Actions menu button and select Copy Due Date to Plan Reviewers.

When you select the option to copy the cycle due date, the system copies the date over to the reviewer due dates that are blank but doesn't override any existing reviewer due dates.

For more information on agency-level plan review options for permits and planning applications, including cascading cycle due dates, see Setting Up Agency-Level Options for Permits and Setting Up Agency-Level Options for Planning Applications.

Manually Adding Plan Review Due Dates

To manually add a due date for a plan review cycle, click the More Actions button for the active review cycle. Select the Edit Plan Review Details menu item to open the Plan review details drawer. In the Due Date field, enter a date or select a due date using the calendar icon. Click Update to apply the due date.

The checkbox to Copy this due date to reviewers is available if the Enable Cascading Cycle Due Date switch is turned on for the agency. Mark the checkbox for the plan review cycle to fill in any reviewer due dates that are blank. However, if there are time rules defined for the application type to automatically add plan review due dates, the time rules are used to calculate the plan review due dates instead. If there are no time rules, then the cascading due date applies.

You can set up the system to send communications when cycle or reviewer due dates are approaching. For more information, see Setting Up Notifications for Plan Review Due Dates.

Finalizing or Canceling Plan Review Cycles

To finalize an electronic plan review cycle, click the More Actions button for the active cycle. Select the Finalize Review Cycle menu item when all of the review decisions have been provided. At this point, the electronic plan review cycle status is Complete. After you finalize the cycle, marked up documents copied back from the Bluebeam Studio™ Session can't be edited. For more information, see Working with Electronic Plan Reviews and Managing Plan Review Documents.

Click the Cancel Review Cycle action to cancel a manual or electronic plan review cycle that is active. This option is available when a manual plan review cycle has a status of In Progress or until an electronic plan review has been finalized.

Your agency may require comments for review cycle cancellations.

Canceling a cycle sets the review cycle status to Canceled. After canceling, the cycle and review details are read-only. All active tasks associated with the plan review are canceled when the plan review cycle is canceled.

Note:

An active plan review cycle is canceled when the transaction that it is associated with is withdrawn.

Viewing Plan Review Cycle History

You can switch between plan review cycles to view details for each cycle, including the Reviewers, Documents, Comments, and Record time sections.

1. Click the Review Cycle tab with the cycle number below the page title. For example, Review Cycle 1 or Review Cycle 2.

   Multiple tabs are only available when there are two or more plan review cycles.

2. Look for this icon to view plan review cycle history:

   • Click the View Cycle History icon on complete review cycles.

   • Click the View Cycle History item in the actions menu on in-progress review cycles.

The Cycle history drawer displays a table with the review cycles for the application, including their status and summary information.

Recording Time for Plan Reviews

Agency staff can use the Record time section for the cycle to record the time they spend on their plan reviews. For more information, see Adding Time Entries and Viewing Recorded Time for an Application.