Rick Chandler ran plan review from the desk, then ran the New York City Department of Buildings from the top. Deputy borough commissioner, then commissioner in Queens and the Bronx, then Commissioner of the entire agency under the de Blasio administration starting in 2014. He conceived and brought the resources for DOB NOW implementation.

So when he tells you what it fixed and what it didn't, he's grading his own work.

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The Starting Point Was Retrieval

DOB NOW was part of a broader digital modernization, but Chandler says the starting premise was much more specific: solve the record-keeping and retrieval problem that sat at the center of the Department's operations.

Before DOB NOW, finding a record could mean a physical trip to a borough office and a wait in line. For a department responsible for more than a million buildings, and for the enormous construction and real estate industry that depends on its information, records that could not be reliably retrieved created hard and soft costs for owners, contractors, professionals, and the Department itself.

It was also a credibility problem. A DOB that could not reliably manage and retrieve its own records reinforced an image of unprofessionalism and mismanagement, with consequences for public confidence and for the Department's relationship with City Council and successive mayoral administrations.

Chandler envisioned the full digital overhaul, but retrieval was the place to start. If the records were not retrievable, everything downstream became harder.

"If you wanted to respond to a complaint, or move a job to a permit, the first thing you need to do is retrieve the records. If those records were not retrievable, it was very problematic.” ~ Rick Chandler

That goal was met. Anybody can now see what's going on. The department can be held accountable, applicants can be held accountable, and owners can finally see what's happening in their own buildings. Retrieval, as a problem, is solved.

The Volume Nobody Priced In.

Here's the part that will land hardest with anyone filing today. Making it easy to file from anywhere, at any hour, didn't just move the old paper volume online. It created new volume.

“More and more documents are being submitted into the system that might not otherwise have been, because it's so easy now.” ~ Rick Chandler

Objection responses in particular have taken on a life of their own. The agency is awash in volume, turnaround is suffering, and the internal effort to process submissions is higher than anyone designed for. Chandler's diagnosis is structural, not a staffing complaint: the system needs standardized process and headcount to match, and it isn't there yet.

Retrieval Is Solved. Interpretation Is Not.

This is the sharpest thing Chandler says, and it's the whole thesis of the conversation.

“The agency has raised the bar in terms of the ability to retrieve information. There needs to be more tools to interpret and process that information.” ~ Rick Chandler

You can see what's required on a job in DOB NOW. You still can't easily see what to do next, who owns it, or what happens to your timeline if it doesn't get done. And a single property rarely lives in one system. DOB NOW filings, legacy BIS jobs, ECB and OATH violations, open items with FDNY, HPD, or DEP. Retrieval improved inside each portal. Nobody made the portals talk to each other.

Chandler also points to a widening gap between users. A career DOB veteran can read a job's history in minutes. A first time owner engaging with the system, possibly the only time in their career, has almost no chance of forming an accurate picture alone. And the surface area keeps growing: the new Existing Building Code, the new zoning resolution, expanding sustainability rules. Each is defensible on its own. Together, they demand real sophistication in how information gets shown to the people who have to act on it.

The AI Question

On AI, Chandler is neither dismissive nor breathless. He says there is an awful lot of hype, and an awful lot of substance behind the hype, and that it is still early days for the regulatory industry. Where he sees a real opening is downstream of standardization: if the department can continue standardizing, an AI first pass on plan review becomes plausible before an examiner gets into the meat of it. He is emphatic that this is not about taking jobs. It is about being thorough, transparent, and efficient, which he does not believe is happening at the pace the department itself would want. He also sees agents helping summarize records for exactly the kind of forensic review he does by hand today.

He also mentions SnapCor's reference library, more than 1,700 city documents covering city agency policies and information that is keyword searchable. Departmental policy, he notes, is an incredible library of material, and being able to retrieve the policies applicable to your specific job is genuinely useful. That is another place where he expects AI to make a difference.

Where SnapCor Fits

Chandler uses SnapCor in his own consulting practice, and his description of it lines up with the exact gap he just described.

Centralize the project. He enters a project early, sometimes before a client has even retained him, and the system pulls what's available across the city's systems into one record.

Automate the monitoring. SnapCor checks on a regular basis and alerts him the moment something changes on the property, so he isn't the one refreshing portals.

Stay proactive. On a property carrying multiple jobs, he can see where every application stands, where violations sit, and who he needs to engage, in one place he can actually evaluate and act on.

“SnapCor complements a fairly complex system to enable all parties to see what direction we're all going in at the same time.” ~ Rick Chandler

DOB NOW got the records out from behind the counter. Making those records mean something to the person who has to act on them is the work still in front of the industry, and it's the job SnapCor took on.

See what SnapCor looks like on your own portfolio: Request a Demo or Run a Property SnapShot on a project you're planning.

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