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Guide

Agency reviews and permits

Most of a site plan's calendar is spent going back and forth with reviewers. Aggrado keeps each set of plans you send to an agency: every round's days with them and with you, their comments as a list with your answers beside them, the response letter, and the permit they issue, so you can say where any approval stands and how long it's been waiting on whom.

By Ryan Lindsey, founder of AggradoHow we write

Start a review

Open the project and go to Documents › Agency reviews and permits. Under Start a review, choose what it is (site plan, sewer extension, water main, erosion and sedimentation control, stormwater, driveway or encroachment, floodplain, other), type the agency, and select Start the review. Add the agency's case number, the reviewer, and the reviewer's email, which the response letter goes to.

Rounds and the clock

  1. Add round 1 when the plans go in.

    Select Add round 1 and enter the day they were submitted. Attach the submittal.

  2. Enter the day the comments come back.

    Attach the comment letter. The review now reads Comments to answer, and it shows on Construction needs attention on Home and in the morning email.

  3. Enter the day you resubmit, then add the next round.

    Select Add round 2 (and so on). The next round takes the last one's unanswered comments with it, and they read Carried to the next round on the round before.

Each round counts the days with the agency and the days with you, and the review adds them up, so the waiting is plain when someone asks.

To keep which sheets went in, and at what revision, record the issue under Documents › Plan issues and sheet register and tie it to the round it answers. Its transmittal prints the sheet list with what changed.

The comment letter

Read the comment letter (PDF) with AI splits the letter into its comments, each with its number, department and reviewer. Nothing is kept until you've checked them against the letter, taken off anything that isn't a comment, and selected Keep these. You can also type comments in. A scanned letter without text needs typing.

Answering

Write each answer and save it, or select Draft with AI. The AI drafts from your firm's earlier answers to comments like it, this agency's first. It hasn't seen your plans, so it leaves blanks in [brackets] for sheet numbers, elevations and anything only the plans can say.

An AI draft is never sent unread
A draft reads AI draft: check it until someone edits it or selects Checked: keep it. The response letter won't email while any answer is still the AI's.

The response letter

Response letter (PDF) prints on your letterhead with each comment as the reviewer wrote it and your answer, grouped by department. A comment not yet answered prints as such. Email the response sends it to the reviewer, and the send is listed under the round.

The permit

When it's approved, select Approved and enter the permit number, the day it was issued, when it expires, the fee and any conditions. The permits list at the top of the page shows every permit on the project, soonest to expire first, with the fees. A permit within 30 days of expiring shows on Construction needs attention, and every expiry is in the calendar address.

A review that went to the agency isn't deleted. Mark it Withdrawn instead, or Back under review if it comes back.

From the makers of Aggrado Site, sitework estimating and job management software: takeoff and crew-based bids, the won bid as the job's budget, and the crew's phone app on one record.