During a pre-consultation process for planning permits, potential applicants and their authorized representatives can present and discuss their land development proposals with relevant municipality staff and external agencies. The pre-consultation process enables the municipal planning department to learn more about applicants' plans and explain how they can apply for a planning permit via Cloudpermit.
How do I know in Cloudpermit if I need a pre-consultation for my application?
Depending on the nature of your application, your city's planning department may have determined that specific planning approval applications must first go through the pre-consultation phase.
When you select the project category for the application during the application creation process, you will be notified if the planning application requires pre-consultation.
Cloudpermit takes you to the pre-consultation request workspace and guides you through filling out the pre-consultation data and uploading the necessary attachments. Cloudpermit ensures that you only submit valid and correct applications to your municipality, expediting the pre-consultation process.
How do I create a pre-consultation request in Cloudpermit?
If your planning application specifies that pre-consultation is required, Cloudpermit will direct you to create a pre-consultation request.
The creation of the pre-consultation request in Cloudpermit is a step-by-step process that allows you to add the property location using the interactive map, fill out project information, upload attachments such as draft plans and drawings, invite people to participate in your pre-consultation workspace, and send your complete request to your municipality via Cloudpermit.
You can provide municipal planning authorities with more information about your development plans, for example, in the pre-consultation meetings.
What is the purpose of the pre-consultation meeting with your municipal building and planning authorities?
Many types of planning applications require pre-consultation meetings between applicants and municipal building and planning authorities.
Once the pre-consultation request application has been submitted to the municipality, the municipal authorities will invite all necessary parties to the meeting by distributing the invitation via the Cloudpermit pre-consultation request workspace.
Authorities and other interested parties can comment on your development proposal and highlight important issues to consider during the pre-consultation meetings. The parties can review the location information, development plans, and studies sent with the pre-consultation request. As a result, the planning application process will result in faster approvals and fewer changes.
How do I communicate with the municipal authorities and other parties during the pre-consultation process?
Cloupermit includes a "messaging" feature in every workspace. The feature is accessible via the link "show messages" in the workspace header. It allows you to ask questions of your city's building and planning departments about any concerns in your development plan. The message threads are available to all parties in the pre-consultation workspace. 
How do I know the pre-consultation is over?
When the pre-consultation process is finished, the municipal planning authority marks the pre-consultation request step as "completed" and prepares a draft planning application in Cloudpermit's "application" tab, which is located next to the "pre-consultation" tab. The completion and outcome of the pre-consultation will be communicated via email to all parties involved in the pre-consultation request, along with a link to the pre-consultation workspace. 
What happens after the pre-consultation phase?
Your request for a pre-consultation is now complete. The necessary meetings have taken place. Your municipal planning authority has given you a pre-consultation result and a draft planning application so that you can move forward with your planning approval.
You will prepare the planning application and provide the required information on it. These include, for example, various party roles, application forms, and attachments. The "Required Tasks" progress bar in the planning application workspace shows you what you need to do in the application workspace before you can send it to your municipal planning department for approval.
After providing the necessary application information, you must sign the application digitally.
Some types of applications may require an upfront permit fee to be paid before submission.
Cloudpermit guides all of the previously described steps, which follow each other chronologically, so you only need to follow these steps to submit a correct and complete planning application to your municipality for the application review phase.
Once the application has been submitted, the municipal planning authority will do a first check on your application for approval. After deeming the approval complete, the authority begins the review process.
Further reading: Planning| Pre-Consultation