San Francisco is a great city to be in the real estate business because of its high demand and potential financial home runs. But when getting permits to build or remodel even a single-family home, this city becomes a nightmare whether you’re a homeowner, architect, builder, or developer. People are complaining, for the right reasons, on two issues: unclear criteria for getting a project approved and the lengthy time frame to issue permits for a project. In some circumstances, getting building permits may take 2 years or even more (if no trial, community hearing, or historical preservation gets mixed in the process).

Below, we're going to give you 5 key tips for projects whose valuation for the scope of work is more than $350,001. These projects usually do not qualify for an over-the-counter permit. If your project falls under $350,000, you are the lucky one who can get away with Over-The-Counter Permits made simple.

1. Do Your Homework

Just like in school, if you show up prepared at the meeting with the city officials, architects, general contractors, and other consultants, you'll get a lot more done in a short time. This property report gives you a wealth of information about the existing site/property so you can spot questions in those meetings and get the most out of them. This step will push you far in the game without any commitment.

2. Parallel Permit Applications

This method comes with some risk, more hours of work from your architect and engineers but it may save you months and help you start the project sooner. Basically, after applying for entitlements (Site Permit) with the Planning Department, you can also apply for Building permits. By the time you get an answer from the Building Department (DBI), you should have an answer from the Planning. Most probably, the DBI is going to have some comments and ask you to submit the Planning approval. At that moment, you already should have the approval from the Planning Department and all you need to do is address the comments with Addendum, not to re-submit the application.

It can be argued that a good set of drawings for the site permit takes a while and you’d want to avoid redoing work if the Planning Department doesn’t approve your application. The good news is that DBI lets you replace the set of drawings you submitted a while back just before they start reviewing them. In this case, you can submit an incomplete set of drawings just to get a spot in line. It usually takes longer for DBI than the Planning Department to review your drawings. So, by the time you get approvals from the Planning Department, you should be close to having your drawings reviewed also by DBI.

Learn key tips to navigate San Francisco's permit process and speed up project approval.

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3. Meeting Minutes

There are at least a couple of different reasons why it’s important to take meeting minutes whenever you meet with officials from the Planning Department. or DBI. One of them is because some departments, like the Fire department, don’t have clearly defined rules and they came up with different rules per each project. Because the person you talked to initially may not be the same as the person reviewing your drawings, or the initial person may forget what they told you, it’s important to take notes of all their comments. Another reason to take meeting minutes is due to staff rollover. Since the permit process takes so long, staff could be reassigned or simply leave the permit department. Meanwhile, you may have followed one inspector’s comments and the new one may not be aware of them. It’d be good to have a list of comments previously addressed by you in drawings to give to the new inspector.

4. Professional Friendships

I call this way when people I work with are honestly happy to see me and to work together. At Planning Department. there are lots of applications and long waiting times. Having a friend who could let you know in advance if your project would have a green light from the Commission, for instance, goes a long way.

5. Get prepared for Postponed Scheduled Dates

In case your project requires a hearing, the city doesn’t have a good track record of keeping the scheduled dates as scheduled. They would easily postpone a hearing a month or two at best. So, your project schedule should account for such circumstances and get prepared financially to support unpredictable delays. I’ll keep on updating this list as I come across other tricks to make your life easier so that you can focus on important things like getting construction started.

Check if your project aligns with market potential and costs now!

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