A consortium of community development groups has delivered a list of proposed reforms in the city’s inspection process and is demanding that the City Council call public hearings on the issue in January.

As Sarah McKenzie reports in the Southwest Journal, the Minnesota Consortium of Community Developers wants to see major changes in the city’s so-called One-Stop program and more thorough pre-development review. “Over the last six months, we have heard a consistent message from our members and from our business clients: that the regulatory system in Minneapolis needs to be fixed,” said MCCD’s Jim Roth. “We also keep hearing that the system works better across the river in St. Paul.”

MCCD’s complaints are valid and constructive, said Rocco Forte, the city’s director of Regulatory Services. And the city has already made some moves to improved the process, such as hiring development coordinators to help people who hope to open businesses in the city navigate the often Byzantine inspections and permit process. “The system has gotten so big that very few of our citizens can navigate it,” he said.

New city coordinator, Steven Bosacker, who has been working on the One Stop program for the better part of a year, agrees that there are problems with the system, but argues that improvements are underway. “It’s an ongoing process,” he said.