CR 2004-087 Authorize Expenditure Of Funds to Digitize Building plans
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. June 1, 2004 Council Report 2004-087
AUTHORIZE EXPENDITURE OF FUNDS
TO DIGITIZE BUILDING PLANS
Proposed Action
Staff recommends that the Council approve the following motion: Move to authorize City Manager to
spend no more than $20,000 for the purpose of digitizing building plans.
Approval of this motion will allow the City to replace about 685 paper building plans with CDs.
Overview
The Inspection Department has about 685 commercial building plans stored in the lower level storage
area. This storage space is being remodeled as part of the Police Department project. In order to
accommodate the remodeling the building plans need to be removed from this area. Storage space is
very limited and eventually we will run out of space to store these plans. Commercial building plans
are pennanent records.
In addition to the storage issue, many of the plans are old and their condition continues to deteliorate.
. Primarv Issues to Consider
What are the alternatives for dealing with the building plans?
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1. Pack them into stackable containers and move them to the Public Works Building. Costs
include the cost of the containers, approximately $1,200, as well as labor costs for loading and
moving the plans. This option will make the plans harder to access. The plans will not be able
to stay at Public Works indefinitely, which means that eventually storage space will have to be
found at City Hall. It will also not solve the problem of deteriorating plans.
2. Store the plans off-site at a commercial facility. New containers would have to be purchased at
a cost of about $600. The alUmal cost of storing them would be about $1,200. This option will
make the plans harder to access. Additional costs will be incurred whenever a plan is accessed.
This option will also not solve the problem of deteriorating plans.
3. Digitize the plans, have a commercial company scan them to tiff fonn and write them to a CD.
The cost would be approximately $15,000 to $20,000. The existing paper copies will be
destroyed. The plans would be easily accessible. Paper copies can be printed if needed.
1 . J
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J3!Jll~' Genellie .
Assistant City Manager
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