Owens Design Consultants
How an Architect Used AI to Eliminate City Plan Check Delays
City feedback addressed in a few days instead of weeks or months.
They ran an AI plan check before submitting the church project to the city. The AI flagged ~300 issues; the team fixed them. When the city responded, most comments were small and nitpicky—they wrapped up quickly and cleanly.
“Yes, I would say we got fewer pages of city comments because the AI had already caught a lot of things that would have come back. Most of the comments are small and insignificant. We will easily wrap this up in only a few days.”
— Thomas J. Owens, P.E., P.L.S., Assoc. AIA, Owens Design Consultants
Before City Submittal
Owens Design Consultants uploaded their full drawing set for a church project—architecture, civil, structural, specs—to InspectMind AI before submitting to the city.
The AI plan checker flagged ~300 issues: code gaps, coordination misses, and common plan-check traps. The team fixed those issues before the city ever saw the set.
City Response
When the project came back from the city, the comments were “mostly benign and nitpicky”—very few substantive issues. Instead of weeks or months of back-and-forth, the team addressed city feedback in a few days.
That's the benefit of shift-left plan checking: catch hundreds of issues before the city or GC does, so when the city does review, there's little left for them to find.
- Fewer city comments = less redesign and fewer delays
- Faster turnaround = happier clients
- Less risk = fewer liability surprises later
Why This Matters
This is exactly how teams are using AI plan checks today: catch hundreds of issues before the city or GC does, and turn months of iteration into days.
Key takeaways
- Run AI before permit submittal to surface code and coordination issues early
- Fix issues before the city sees the set—fewer comments and faster approval cycles
- Small firms can get the same “second set of eyes” without hiring more staff
Run an AI Plan Check Before Your Next City Submittal
Upload your drawings, get results in hours. Catch what the city would have caught—before they see it.
One issue found pays for the whole check