Help entrepreneurs understand the costs and requirements of starting a business.
Painful permitting processes shouldn’t stand in the way of economic development in your city. Not with new jobs, increased tax revenue, and greater innovation all on the line. With OpenCounter, you can untangle your city’s municipal codes and make permitting easier for everyone to understand. Demystify permit discovery for business owners, improve collaboration and workflows across City Hall, and more — all with our Business Portal.
Don’t let dense, jargon-filled language overwhelm applicants from square one. Our use code search allows applicants to enter simple terms — like “bookstore” or “nail salon” — and see a list of matching land use codes. And if the right option isn’t there, they can browse the entire list of use codes and make the correct selection for their project.
The zoning maps reveal where the project is permitted, conditionally permitted, and prohibited in the jurisdiction. These clearances take into account conditional considerations, such as whether a restaurant will serve alcohol, or offer drive-through service.
Nested questions quickly surface permit requirements. Applicants won’t be stuck answering irrelevant questions. Location data can also be leveraged for triggering permit requirements (i.e. zoning permits, business improvement and parking districts, environmental overlays, etc).
Fees are calculated in real-time as applicants enter project details. A unique feature in the marketplace, OpenCounter can run fee estimations across departments and data sets. By digitizing the fee schedule and normalizing internal data, this feature also powers admin reporting, which gives policymakers insight into the effects of existing regulations and processes.
On the summary page, required permits can be listed by department or the order in which the applicant should apply, with links to relevant application methods. These include downloadable PDFs, instructions for in-person applications, and online applications through OpenCounter and other systems of record including Accela ACA.
Powerful dashboards and utilization metrics offer insight into high-level permitting trends in your community. Respond to inquiries and measure the performance of the portals.
Learn more about our Business Portal solution.
The Business Portal can be fully translated into any of the following 35+ languages:
Arabic
Bulgarian
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English (British)
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Malay
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese (Brazil)
Portuguese (Europe)
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovak
Spanish (Latin American)
Spanish (Spain)
Swedish
Tagalog
Thai
Turkish
Ukranian
Vietnamese
