Jacksonville, Florida – Jacksonville’s building boom is forcing City Hall and the development community to rethink a critical step in the permitting process.
Sabrina Dugan, managing partner at SwiftBuild.ai, said artificial intelligence can help cities consider plans more quickly and consistently, while still leaving final decisions in human hands.
“Keeping certain items within the review process for human judgment… it’s essential that humans are informed,” Dugan said.
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Dugan joins This Week in Jacksonville Business Edition Learn how SwiftBuild’s AI infrastructure supports the City of Jacksonville’s Express Lane permitting initiative, an online system designed to streamline submissions and feedback.
From accessibility projects to city-scale tools
According to Dugan, SwiftBuild began as a project at the University of Florida after he noticed accessibility barriers impacting his friends’ commutes to school.
“That is permissible, but it comes back to compliance,” she said, explaining that accessibility is part of a broader code review process that also touches on resiliency, such as how structures function during floods, hurricanes and other disasters.
Why allowing speed is important for everyone
Dugan argued that even residents who have never applied for a permit are feeling the impact, as delays increase costs throughout the construction chain.
“Currently, maintenance costs are prohibitive for developers, and those costs are passed on to consumers,” she says.
Dugan pointed to an example shared with Hernando County. One developer estimated that the delay cost them 132 days and $16.9 million in lost maintenance costs. Reducing that time can mean meaningful savings for builders, vendors and ultimately the families who move into the homes, she said.
Personnel continue to speed up reviews
Dugan described Jacksonville’s efforts as a combination of standardized operating procedures, clearer applicant checklists, and AI tools that can quickly surface code-related comments, but staff remain the ultimate decision-makers.
“There was a lot of fear about AI, but we really see this as a force multiplier,” Dugan said.
SwiftBuild says it’s also expanding into Texas and California, but Dugan emphasized the company’s focus on helping Florida lead in speed permitting.
“We want to make Florida the fastest state in the country,” she said.
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