City Hall wants to fix what some officials think is a hostile business environment in Sacramento.

The city is launching an effort aimed at speeding up development and doing away with regulations criticized for scaring businesses away from the city, officials announced Tuesday.

The process will begin over the next few weeks, when the city's Community Development Department will move toward placing permitting processes online, reducing fees associated with solar projects and creating "express lanes" for some projects.

"These are things that will help Sacramento because time is money," said Josh Wood, the vice president of Region Builders, a development and business advocacy group.

Mayor Kevin Johnson said the changes would help the city create "a more robust business climate." He said a recent study showed Sacramento was the sixth-worst market in the country for small businesses.

In addition to the changes about to take place, officials will also review the dozens of ordinances that affect businesses in the city to see whether any should be changed or reversed.

Councilman Jay Schenirer, chair of the city's Law and Legislation Committee, said he would propose to that committee that it look at the ordinances over the next several months.

"We have heard for a long time that we have a hostile environment toward business," Schenirer said.

Many in the business community have complained in recent months about what they characterize as a stagnant permitting and development process in the city.

Under former City Manager Ray Kerridge the city made a big push to speed up approval of development projects. But an ensuing scandal in the building department caused a backlash that slowed approvals to a crawl, developers say.

In 2009, The Bee revealed that home permits were improperly issued in the Natomas flood zone. A subsequent audit and investigation into the development department later found several cases in which city ordinances were not followed in permitting and fees went uncollected. The City Council demanded changes in the development department.

The mayor said officials would look to include "an extra step or two of caution" and said that past efforts to streamline the development department "went too far."

"We can find the happy medium," he said.

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Call The Bee's Ryan Lillis, (916) 321-1085. Read his City Beat blog at sacbee.com/citybeat

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