The San Francisco permit path

Why this page exists

Ask a builder how long a project takes and you will usually be told how long the construction takes. In this city that is answering a different question from the one you asked, and the gap between the two is frequently a year.

The reason nobody publishes the real number is partly that it is uncomfortable and partly that it is not the builder’s to control. A contractor who gives you a date and then watches Planning take nine months has made a promise they could not keep. So most of them simply do not discuss it, and an owner finds out at the worst possible moment: after they have committed.

This page is the whole path, written out. It is not legal advice and it is not a substitute for the city’s own information, which changes; it is a builder’s practical account of the sequence, written so that you can plan.

Step one: feasibility, before anybody draws anything

The cheapest hour on any project. What does the zoning allow once setbacks, rear yard and height are applied? Where does the mid-block open space line fall and what does it do to how far back you can build? Is the building in the soft-storey programme? Has it been added to before, and was that addition permitted?

That last question catches more projects than any other. An unpermitted addition discovered during review becomes your problem to resolve before anything new is approved, and resolving it can take longer than the project you actually wanted.

Cost: nothing, if you ask a builder and an architect informally. A few thousand dollars if you commission a proper feasibility study. Either is trivially cheap against the cost of finding out in month nine. Duration: 1–4 weeks.

Step two: design

Measured drawings of what is there, then a scheme. On an older building the measured survey alone is real work, because the drawings on file are frequently wrong and sometimes do not exist.

This is where a builder earns their place in the room. An architect designs what you want; a builder who has been through Planning two hundred times can say which two lines will attract objection and what they will cost you in months. Changing a drawing is free. Changing a project after Planning has seen it is not.

Where structure is involved — and on almost any San Francisco addition it is — a structural engineer comes in here, not later. Duration: 8–24 weeks, depending on complexity and on how quickly you make decisions.

Step three: Planning entitlement

The long one, and the one with the least predictability.

Planning reviews the project against the Residential Design Guidelines, which are guidelines rather than rules — that word is doing a great deal of work. Depending on what you propose, the neighbours are formally notified and given a period in which to respond. If the project is in a historic district or the building may be a historic resource, there is a further review on top.

Then, on many residential projects, comes the thing everything else on this page is shaped around: any member of the public can request discretionary review, asking the Planning Commission to take a second look at a project that would otherwise be approved. It is not common. It is not rare. When it happens it adds three to nine months, a hearing, and usually a redesign.

What reduces the risk: designing within what the block already looks like, keeping the street elevation quiet, respecting the rear open space, and talking to the neighbours before the notice arrives rather than after. That last one is not a legal step and it is the single most effective thing an owner can do.

Duration: 12–52+ weeks without discretionary review. Add 12–36 more with it.

Step four: plan check and permit issuance

Now the drawings go to the Department of Building Inspection and are reviewed for code: structural, fire, accessibility, energy, and the plumbing and electrical work. Depending on the project, Fire and Public Works review too.

Reviews come back with corrections. A well-prepared set gets one round; a poorly prepared set gets three, and each round means re-submission and another wait in the queue. This is the phase where paying for a good, complete drawing set pays for itself several times over, and where trying to save money on documentation costs the most.

Some straightforward work can be permitted over the counter in a day. Anything with structural work, a change of use, or an added unit cannot. Duration: 12–36 weeks for a project of any substance.

Step five: construction and inspections

Finally, building. Inspections happen at defined stages — foundation, framing, rough plumbing and electrical, insulation, and final — and work does not continue past an inspection point until it has passed.

Structural work frequently also needs special inspection: an independent inspector, retained separately, who observes and certifies specific operations such as welding, epoxy anchors or engineered fill. It is a real line in the budget and it is not optional.

A revision during construction — a design change after the permit was issued — goes back through plan check. That is the most common self-inflicted delay on any of these projects, and the reason we push so hard to have decisions made before submission. Duration: 16–52 weeks.

Step six: closeout

Final inspections, a certificate of final completion, and the records: as-built drawings where the project warrants them, warranties, manuals, and the paperwork that will matter enormously in ten years when you sell the building and somebody asks whether the work was permitted.

An owner should keep that package somewhere findable. The single most expensive words in San Francisco real estate are “there is no permit on file for that”. Duration: 3–10 weeks.

What this means for your calendar

Add it up and a straightforward addition is around 18 months and a new house is closer to 30. Roughly half to two-thirds of that is before anything is demolished.

That is not a reason not to do it. It is a reason to start the calendar earlier than you think, to make design decisions before submission rather than during construction, to spend money on investigation at the beginning, and above all to put the carrying cost of that period into your budget from the start, because no contractor’s estimate will contain it.

All five schedules are drawn at real proportion on the schedule page, including one showing what a neighbour’s objection does.