Altamonte Springs to use AI to speed up development
Altamonte Springs will become the first Florida city to use artificial intelligence to process development applications, a move that’s expected to cut costs and time as Central Florida rapidly develops.
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A partnership with AutoReview.AI was announced this week. The program will check applications to see if proposals comply with city code and explain what needs to be modified.
Altamonte Springs City Manager Frank Martz said it typically takes his staff a few days to weeks to review each application. The program will be expected to complete the same task in as little as 30 minutes.
“Just like a calculator, it’s going to give time back to our staff,” he said. “That allows our staff to do some other things.”
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The program is not expected to encounter the ethical or moral questions that have plagued the early days of AI development. Since it’s judging applications on a yes/no system, it’s not being given room to evolve discriminatory behavior, which has presented problems in other areas.
Development managers like Doug Kelly, of England, Thims and Miller, Inc., are on board with the plan.
He said turnaround times in the review process have slowly grown longer as governments struggle to hire qualified staff, developments become trickier to design and growth around the Sunshine State has failed to slow.
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Kelly said in some areas, it can take months to complete one step of the development process due to the lengthy review times.
“For something like this to come about is such a game changer because of the timing involved,” he said. “It’s just a fascinating opportunity for being able to deliver housing and commercial retail at a faster rate while not sacrificing the quality of review.”
Martz said the first applications would be run through the new program in a few weeks.
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