Twinsburg, Ohio Issues Building Permits Twice as Fast

About Twinsburg

Twinsburg, Ohio sits between Cleveland and Akron. It's home to over 19,000 people, hiking trails at Liberty Park, and the largest gathering of twins and multiples in the world, which the city hosts every summer. Its building department is four people, led by building official Dale Steppenbacker.

The department handles every permit, every plan review, and every inspection in the city. They are extremely dedicated to their work because they see what it produces. They watch a drawing become a building, and a family get the home they saved for. "It's rewarding when you walk in on day one and you do your footer inspection, and a year or two years later you're doing a final inspection," Steppenbacker says.

The problem

Almost nobody thinks about building codes until they need one. "Most people don't really fully understand that building codes and standards exist," Steppenbacker says. "And if they do understand that there are building codes and standards, most people don't understand how technical they are."

As a result, a homeowner or a business starting a project begins with questions about a process they've likely never dealt with before. They may search for answers, but rarely do they do so between the hours of nine and five. "We're seeing a trend where more and more people are looking at our website in the evenings, on the weekends," Steppenbacker says.

When the city could not answer, Google did, and the answers often came from the wrong sources. "We don't want misinformation with a possible code or zoning code that might be from another state or another community," Steppenbacker says. A project designed against another state's code is a project that fails plan review.

Every one of those failed reviews cost the department time and trust it hadn't earned. "Prior to the implementation of technology, applications and approvals would take far too long," Steppenbacker says. "It would create a situation where contractors didn't want to work with local building officials." The old software gave the department no way to get in front of the problem.

The opportunity

Twinsburg went live with GovWell in December 2025. "The transition from our software to the GovWell team was quick, it was easy, it was efficient," Steppenbacker says. "We were able to launch the new software to the community with minimal interruptions." GovWell set up the city's GIS, loaded its codes, and implemented its workflows before launch. Plus, contractors working in neighboring Ohio communities already on GovWell never had to create an account. "Many of the contractors that we were working with were already subscribed to GovWell, and their username and password carried over," Steppenbacker says. Twinsburg made it easier to do business with their community.

The bigger change was access. Residents and contractors could now reach the building department whenever they had a question, including outside regular business hours. Twinsburg's AI Community Assistant, trained on local codes and fee schedules, answers applicants instantly, and nearly 25% of those questions arrive during evenings and weekends. "It allows [applicants] to log on, get answers to their questions at any time, and it helps fit their busy lifestyles," Steppenbacker says. "You could have somebody that is waiting to pick their child up from baseball practice, and they're able to log on through a phone or a laptop or an iPad to apply for the application.”

Access improved for department staff, too. A permit application in Twinsburg often requires sign-off from fire, engineering, or planning and zoning. Keeping track of who has what used to be its own job.

Now, Steppenbacker says: "I can easily route a plan review to the fire department or the engineering department, or planning and zoning, all while the software is tracking when I send it out, when it's due back, and who's responsible for what.” Once every review is back, the department sends one consolidated approval to applicants, rather than a series of individual answers.

That gives Steppenbacker the confidence to better serve his community. "I know where every project is within the department," he says.

The result

Twinsburg building operations are faster than ever. Median time from application submission to permit issuance in Twinsburg is now just 2.1 days. "GovWell allows us to speed up the process," Steppenbacker says. "We can turn around permits much faster. I can say that we do not hold up a project.”

This speed is paired with greater transparency. Applicants no longer have to call to find out where their project stands, because GovWell tells them at every step. When an approval moves to plan review, they are notified. When a review finishes, they are notified. When the permit is issued, they can see which inspections their project requires and request one themselves. "The applicant is always updated as to where they are in the process," Steppenbacker says.

The result is renewed trust. Residents and contractors bring their projects to the city and get answers quickly. The building department has become the place they check first. Steppenbacker sees people turning to his team for answers more than they used to, earning trust through daily interactions, one permit and one phone call at a time . "Maybe some of the old 'don't call your local government because they're going to be a problem' — I think that trend needs to change," he says. "I think that we can add value to planning your project."

"I think that we need to look at local government as a resource."

In Twinsburg, it already is. A city of 19,000 people has a building department that answers questions at any hour, issues permits in two days, and tells every applicant exactly where their project stands. That's what a modern city looks like.

"We are extremely happy with the decision to choose GovWell as our software provider. The amount of support that we received, the amount of improvements to the software already has helped us grow as a department." — Dale Steppenbacker, Building Official