The city of Detroit's new digital permit approval system is clearing out shelves of paper plans and relieving contractors and staff from the time-consuming ways of old.

Since rolling outs its ePlans system late last year, the Buildings Safety Engineering and Environmental Department is receiving over 95 percent of permit approvals electronically, according to Dave Bell, department director. He says the new process takes no more than half the time as the old way.

Contractors' quick adoption of the new system speaks to why the city overhauled its old network, which was outdated and inefficient.

Steve Pariseau, principal architect at Royal Oak-based Shelter Design Studio LLC, said the old way was a "nightmare" compared to the process now.

"I used to have to go in and walk documents through every step of the process," he said. "It was simply a very cumbersome process, but necessary so you could track what changes were being made."

The department has approved in the last nine months about 630 applications under the new system — over 20 percent more than the old system during the same point in time last year, Bell said in an email. The department receives on average 200-300 permit requests per week.

Pariseau, whose design firm has been operating since 2007 with most of its projects in Detroit, said he has used ePlans a half-dozen times and can already feel its positive effects on business.

To get approval for medium-sized projects in the past, it would take three to four days, he said. It takes only about a day and a half now, and it can all be done from the office.

"It's been great, quite honestly. A lot less paper and a lot easier to track," he said, adding that he thinks the new system is even more thorough than the previous process. "Certainly, it has had a direct impact on business in that I'm not spending a lot of time administratively on the permit process."

With development downtown and in adjacent areas booming, the new system has "changed the game," Bell said.

It eliminates parking and gas costs and, perhaps most appreciated, it allows contractors to submit corrections virtually instead of going to the department to pull papers and submit revised plans.

"Even those customers that originally were against change are now on board," Bell said.

EPlans is powered by new software from Accela Inc. put into use this spring to replace the old Tidemark program.

The city paid a one-time fee of $262,750 to implement ePlans and will pay $147,000 in annual operating costs.

Officials say there are no plans to consolidate employees as a result of the more efficient system.