LYNN — As of Tuesday, Nov. 1, homeowners, contractors, or any residents will be able to apply for permits, track their permit statuses, and check inspection dates on the Department of Inspectional Services’ newly-launched portal site at lynnisd.com.
Chief of Inspectional Services Michael Donovan said that the department has been planning their switch to a paperless system since 2016. Donovan said that the portal system will make it easier for residents and tradespeople to deal with their permits and inspection reports.
“This is the first time we’ve had the ability to have somebody go in and not only apply for the permit and pay for it, they can track the permit. Now they can look to see the status of the permit, they can see the status of their inspections,” Donovan said. “It’s a full service portal for anybody out there, and the whole purpose of this is just to save people the time and the expense of coming to City Hall […} in a nutshell, it’s customer service. It’s all about customer service.”
Ordinance Enforcement Officer Zosia VanMeter, who worked to implement the portal, said that going paperless will save time and effort for not only permit applicants, but the department itself.
“For the ISD staff, it automates the process a lot, it helps us decrease our margin of error, it helps with legibility, because sometimes we get applications and they’re just very hard to read. It saves a lot of that time, because we are getting the information directly from the person applying. It’s typed out, something that’s very legible, and it is automatically entered into our system,” VanMeter said.
For those without access to a computer or smartphone, there are two computers installed in the Inspectional Services Department office on the fourth floor of City Hall that, VanMeter said, are free for the public to use to access the portal. She said that around 30 individuals had used the portal since its launch, 12 of which used the computers available at City Hall.
Donovan said that those wishing to file paper documents with the Inspectional Services Department can continue to do so until Jan. 1, 2023. After that, all documents must be filed online. He said that the paperless switch is timely, given the fact that neighboring cities and towns had altered their systems years ago.
“Given that the date and time where we are in this century, it’s about time,” Donovan said.
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at anthony@itemlive.com
