Case Study: City of Moreno Valley achieves greater transparency in fire permitting and a 95% reduction in labor with Accela

Moreno Valley, CA - Improving Transparency in Fire Permitting

Accela worked with the City of Moreno Valley to modernize its fire permitting and inspection program after rapid growth and worsening wildland fire risk exposed limitations in the city’s outdated, paper‑based systems. Inspectors faced manual data entry, poor field visibility into parcel and permit histories, and slow, error‑prone billing and notification processes that hindered timely hazard abatement and public transparency.

The city implemented the Accela Civic Platform with GIS integration and customized CityGovApp mobile apps to enable in‑field inspections, photo/document capture, automated scheduling, billing and online owner portals. Results included greatly improved interagency visibility, faster owner notifications, reduced errors and better compliance — cutting labor by 95%, shrinking the hazard abatement cycle from about two months to three days (1,144 hours to 58), and decreasing wildfire risk in vulnerable areas.

City of Moreno Valley

Jackie Lankhorst

Permit Technician