Permitting Software Replacement
At a glance
- What: replacing the town's PermitPro electronic permitting system with OpenGov, because its vendor is ending support.
- Where it stands: partial funding (38,000 dollars) was included in Article 1 at the Oct 19 Special Town Meeting, which carried 442-20 (2026-10-19 - Special Town Meeting); the Select Board heard the presentation on Oct 13.
- Next: if funded, migration of data over about six months, aiming to switch around July 1, 2027.
Details
- PermitPro vendor support was to end January 2027, extended to June 2027. The town issues about 4,200 permits a year in 52 permit types and has used electronic permitting since 2017; going back to paper was judged unrealistic.
- OpenGov: cloud-based, unlimited users, departments and permits; 10 to 15 new permit types planned; used by all of Westborough's immediate neighbors except Upton and 11 of 15 dashboard communities.
- Cost: about $40,000 for migrating over 44,000 applications and 100,000 images; hosting and subscription about $22,000 more in FY2028 than PermitPro; 2.5 year initial commitment; 5% annual increases (PermitPro 6%). First six months about $68,000 to $70,000, of which the article asks $38,000; the rest from department operating budgets because free cash is not yet certified.
- Board questions: a contractual guarantee of complete data migration (staff will keep a full copy and try to add a 100% guarantee), backups and recovery, customization, which departments use it, pre-2017 scanned records (stay in a separate system, linked), and an overlap period before PermitPro support ends.
- Presenters: Fred Lonardo (Community Development) and Mark Stockman (IT), names as transcribed.
Discussion time
About 23 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).
| Meeting | Minutes |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-13 - Select Board | 23 |
Log
- 2026-10-19 - Special Town Meeting - Funded in part by Article 1 (38,000 dollar IT item in the budget adjustments), which carried 442-20; mentioned only in passing by Sean Keogh.
- 2026-10-13 - Select Board - Presentation and questions on cost, migration guarantees and timing; members supportive.
- 2026-09-08 - Select Board - Finance director said the current system will no longer be supported; replacement to be paid from departmental and IT budgets rather than free cash; board asked for a presentation. (from auto-captions)
- 2026-08-20 - Advisory Finance Committee - Finance director said the highly customized permitting software is no longer supported (from auto-captions).
- 2026-08-18 - Select Board - Placeholder warrant article brought forward because the vendor stopped supporting the software (from auto-captions).