Cities across the country are facing multiple planning challenges: housing demand, complex zoning, environmental constraints, seasonal construction windows, and limited staff capacity. These pressures slow permitting, frustrate applicants, and pull planners away from the work they came to do — building great communities. This session will present case studies from two startup companies that are collaborating with city planners, land use attorneys, developers, and architects to improve permitting outcomes. Join us to learn about strategies used to streamline workflows, increase transparency, and support timely housing delivery.
Emulate Cities
The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) is partnering with Emulate Cities, a software startup, to bring artificial intelligence (AI) into its housing permit and planning processes. By using AI to automatically check applications for completeness and accuracy, TRPA is reducing incomplete submittals, freeing up staff time, and laying the groundwork for a bigger shift: using these same tools to power long-range planning, scenario modeling, and community visioning.
Infilla
Infilla supports municipal planning and building departments in addressing the housing crisis by making permitting processes more efficient, consistent, transparent, and compliant. Infilla’s modular software is built on more than 1,000 hours of user research with 300+ staff and applicants across 50+ jurisdictions. Current municipal partners include San Francisco, New York City, Sonoma County, Richmond, and El Segundo among others.