The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors has approved an express building permitting process with a potential walk-up desk after years of complaints from local residents and builders.
The supervisors agreed with the findings of a Grand Jury report released June 23, detailing the active process as “costly, time-consuming, and exasperating.” They will work to create a system that offers more in-person help, a smoother online platform, and an efficient process, especially for those with smaller projects in unincorporated areas of the county.
The report outlined the repercussions the active permitting process had on local disasters, such as those affected by the 2020 CZU fires. The disaster’s fallout birthed a flood of building permits, leaving homeowners stranded in a maze of inefficiency, the report said
The city has worked alongside the business consulting firm Baker Tilly, which is conducting an organized assessment of the active permitting process. This includes interviews with employees and customers, reviewing operational data, and further research on the previous procedures.
Supervisor Manu Koenig described the end goal as another way to consider housing growth.
“We heard from the consultant that the planning department has a culture of no,” said Koenig. “And often is looking for ways to extend permitting, preventing people from building.”
He mentioned two fundamental shifts for the department that combat the long, grueling reviewing process. The first is, as he describes it, “multiple bites out of the apple.”
“Rather than reviewing an application, they will provide new feedback on the first round, second, or third that pushes applications through endless rounds of review adding time and cost to homeowners, which often reflects on the cost of housing,” Koenig said.
The board also addressed the requirement that all plan review comments be cited by county code rather than an arbitrary system, ensuring the law is behind decisions.
Koenig described the transition from large-scale to small-scale projects as “leveling the playing field” to ensure that it would be easier to understand, cheaper, and less time-consuming, so that more people could add housing incrementally.
“One thing we are trying to do in the planning department is to make it easier to add middle housing,” said Koenig, “ it’s essential to ensure that Santa Cruz is a multi-generational community for me.”
Furthermore, Koenig envisioned a planning department offering customer feedback, ensuring local homeowners that the county is on their side, and an efficient permitting process for cost and time.
County staff will execute a work plan for the latest procedure, using Baker Tilly’s findings. The board has until August 22 to give the Grand Jury a formal response.
Some of the Grand Jury’s recommendations included:
*Supervisors should have staff review best practices from other jurisdictions and then select strategies that will reduce costs and delays in our county’s Permitting Services by January 1, 2026.
*Supervisors should direct staff to adopt software that removes barriers to applicants and is comprehensive to all departments. The software should flag any permits that have been unaddressed for longer than two weeks to avoid application delays.
*Santa Cruz County should develop a plan to educate the population about different permit types to reduce illegal builds through staff participation in community events, newspaper articles and/or other Unified Permit Center media involvements.
*Santa Cruz County should establish a walk-up front desk service four hours per workday to assist homeowners, non-building professionals and small contractors navigate the permit process.
*Santa Cruz County should reconvene the Building and Fire Code Appeals Board, populated by seasoned building professionals, to adjudicate permit disputes quickly, publicly, and professionally, and with less cost.
*Santa Cruz County should direct the Building Department and any other relevant departments to review the State code parameters that allow county adjustments for building permit fees and find the least-cost, least-delay alternative. Anything that can be free should be free.
*The County of Santa Cruz should separate the Ombudsman duties from Manager of Unified Permit Center resulting in two separate positions: a full-time, dedicated Ombudsman and a full-time Manager.
