Aurora Engineering Site Civil Plan Review Services

Challenge: The City of Aurora is located in three counties. Having the most developable land in the Denver metro area, the City is undergoing considerable growth in its commercial and industrial base and adding several residential communities.

Their staff and the consultant reviewers could not keep pace with the documents requiring plan review (civil plans, preliminary and final drainage reports and plans, and stormwater management plans), resulting in missed deadlines and multiple resubmittals. Additionally, the City developed a backlog of capital projects that they were unable to get started after the COVID pandemic, in part due to a lack of staffing.

Solution: The City offered HR Green the opportunity to assist with a $350K plan review contract. Within five months of starting, by leveraging staff from multiple offices, we added review assistance. HR Green assigns two local Project Managers supported by a team of 25+ plan review staff for the timely review of land development plans which include civil plans, preliminary and final drainage reports and plans, and stormwater management plans for multi-modal trails, sidewalks, grading, drainage, and site improvements.

Initially, this allowed the City to eliminate a huge backlog of projects. Since then, the City has continued to leverage HR Green to keep up with robust development activity. Given our ability to deliver on-time service, we were requested to enhance our scope to the review of small cell sites and CLOMR/LOMRs, as well as updating the City’s street light design standards and creating fiber review Standard Operating Procedures.

In addition, to supplement and augment city transportation capital project staff, HR Green assigned a seasoned Professional Engineer as Project Manager for multiple CIP projects (Gartrell Road Bridge expansion and Aurora Parkway Bridge projects over E470), responsible for day-to-day project management services. Acting as the City’s owner’s representative, our engineer solicited proposals; selected consultants, oversaw engineering design, and monitored task, schedule, and cost control.

Benefit: The City has been able to keep pace with its robust land development activity through HR Green’s dedicated plan check team and consistency with the City’s process. Over the past few years, HR Green has met the required turnaround times 98% of the time. Our CIP project management involvement allowed the City to accelerate the delivery of critical bridge projects.

“HR Green has been supporting development review services for the City of Aurora since 2021. Their engineering expertise and responsiveness are outstanding and exceed expectations. Project reviews ranged from commercial, industrial, and residential subdivisions to roadways, drainage, utilities, fiber, and small cells. HR Green has been instrumental in the City’s ability to deliver the high-quality service that City strives to provide to the community.”
– Aurora City Engineer