
In February 2024, the Building Inspection Office of the Science City of Darmstadt, as a pilot municipality, became the first city in Hesse to approve the first fully electronically submitted building permit application for a building without any media disruption. Head of Digitalization Holger Klötzner and Head of Building Paul Georg Wandrey provided the information. The digital building permit process is expected to be available to the public via the Hessen Construction Portal starting at the end of 2024.
“The digitalization of administration is one of the major challenges of the future. Against this backdrop, we are pleased that the Science City of Darmstadt has overcome another hurdle and become the first city in Hesse to complete a fully digital building permit application. Once fully implemented, this will further enhance citizen services in this area,” explains Klötzner.
The application and processing between the architectural firm, the building inspectorate, and the involved third parties takes place entirely digitally. The application data, along with the required documents, are transferred securely and seamlessly from the applicant’s computer via the Hessen Construction Portal to the building authorities and the involved third parties. The building permit is provided fully electronically via the construction portal. The main innovation of this system is that – unlike other procedures – not only PDF files are sent, but much of the data is available in machine-readable form – i.e., fully digital.
“To this end, the Building Inspection Office has been enabled to allocate two employees to develop the digital building permit application, so that the project can be advanced starting April 1, 2024, together with the developers of ekom21, the specialist software manufacturer OTS, the Office for Digitalization and IT, and the city’s organizational department as part of the Hesse-wide ‘Digital Building Permit Procedure’ project. Finally, I would like to thank Merck and my colleagues at the city, without whose commitment, the implementation of this project would not have been possible,” said Wandrey.
Background
Since November 2023, the Science City of Darmstadt has been testing the Hesse digital construction portal with selected partners and architects from the private sector. Among the first applicants to participate in the test phase is the Darmstadt-based science and technology company Merck. The Building Inspectorate is also using the ongoing test phase to train its administrators in the process, optimize workflows, and resolve any inconsistencies in the program.