Case Study: City of McAllen achieves dramatically faster building permit turnaround and online permitting with Accela

Accela helps reduce building permit issuance time and streamline review, approval and inspection process for contractors

The City of McAllen, Texas, was struggling to keep up with rapid growth as its Building Permits and Inspections Department relied on a staff-only tracking system, paper plan sets and in-person status checks. Long lead times—residential permits up to three weeks and commercial permits up to two months—created frustration for contractors and inefficiencies across departments.

McAllen implemented Accela Land Management with Accela GIS, Mobile Office and Citizen Access to enable electronic plan review, automated workflows, real-time mobile inspections and online sub-permit self-issuance and payments. The result: about 1,600 permits per quarter with 35% of sub-permits handled online, an 85% reduction in residential turnaround (to ~3 days) and an 83% reduction in commercial turnaround (to 5–10 days), plus better interdepartmental transparency, productivity and auditing.

City Of McAllen

Luis Vasquez

Chief Building Official, Building Permits and Inspections