MADISON, July 22, 2020 — John Mielke, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, issued the following statement regarding the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services commercial plan review backlog:
“ABC of Wisconsin and its members have appreciated the opportunity to work with Department of Safety and Professional Services Secretary-designee Dawn Crim and the Legislature over the last year to try and fix the commercial plan review backlog. The recent DSPS report details modest gains from important, but preliminary efforts by DSPS to start addressing the commercial plan review backlog.
“Please note that contractors are reporting that COVID-19 has decreased the volume of new construction projects being proposed, which in addition to the DSPS reforms, has lessened the commercial plan review backlog. More plans will be submitted as the economy continues to restart and rebuild.
“Secretary-designee Crim’s previously publicly-stated goal to ABC members was to have commercial plans reviewed in 4-6 weeks. The problem with the report using an ‘average’ is that an equal number of plans are taking much longer to review as are taking much less time to review. We look forward to continuing to work with Secretary-designee Crim and the Legislature to make the significant and meaningful necessary reforms to commercial plan review and fix the backlog before winter curbs construction in Wisconsin.”