Case Study: City of Rochester, Minnesota achieves 50% faster permit processing with Accela

Shaking things up in an epicenter fueled by economic boom and growth

Rochester, Minnesota—a rapidly growing medical and research hub anchored by the Mayo Clinic and the Destination Medical Center initiative—faced mounting pressure to scale building and planning operations to keep pace with development. The City’s legacy permitting systems were slow, paper‑based and unable to handle rising trade permit volumes, creating delays for citizens and staff.

Since adopting Accela solutions, Rochester moved trade permits and payments online and equipped inspectors with mobile tools, streamlining workflows and enabling real‑time field inspections. The changes cut average processing times by over 50% (online payments processed in 30 seconds), achieved 51% online submissions within a year, freed nearly half of an FTE for strategic work, reduced emails/faxes, and provided analytics for better decision‑making, with electronic plan review coming next.

City of Rochester, Minnesota

Rob Ronnenberg

Office Services Coordinator