November 17, 2014

Prince George’s County and Arium AE are partnering together to decrease permit review times

Arium AE has been selected to be part of PG County’s Peer Review Program.

PG County has selected Arium to be a part of their new Peer Review Program. According to a past presentation to the Washington Building Congress by Rushern Baker, the Peer Review Program is part of a larger initiative improve the County’s past reputation of having one of the more complicated, time consuming, and costly permitting processes in the region.

You can read more about changes within the County in a recent article here.

The Peer Review Program provides applicants with a streamlined and predictable path towards securing a permit. The process begins as the design team sends their completed drawings to our peer review team for review prior to submitting them to the County.  We conduct an initial peer review, working with the county, to provide recommendations back to the design team. The process is very collaborative and we all work together with the design team to provide a set of drawings that the county can quickly approve after the peer review process. 

Generally, once the design team submits permit ready drawings into the Peer Review process, the applicant can walk away with a permit in 6-7 weeks.  Currently the normal permit review process is in the range of 3-4 months, sometimes longer.   The Peer review process generally cuts the total review time by ½.  In addition to reducing permit review time applicants receive an improved set of documents.   The peer review team looks at design coordination, details, as well as any missing information that could affect construction.  We provide an extra set of eyes to the design drawings.  

Arium AE is currently providing: Architectural, Electrical and Mechanical design reviews.  Our other team members include Holbert Apple for structural, DND-Engineering and Koffle Associates for Fire Protection review.  

While the program is fairly new, officially starting in late 2013, we have been involved in over 30+ projects from a wide range of sectors.  They include restaurants, office, retail, multi-story residential, commercial kitchens, single family plans on file, and mixed-use.  

If you have any questions regarding the PG County Peer Review process, or would like to discuss opportunities for your project, please give us a call.  

Scott H. Walthour, PE, LEED BD+C
Principal
Arium AE
scottw@ariumae.com