California Residential Private Permitting Review Act: residential building permits.

As proposed by Assembly Members Ward, Quirk-Silva, and Rivas, the California Residential Private Permitting Review Act introduces a private-plan-checking pathway for small residential projects to address local plan-check delays and is paired with a transparent fee-posting requirement. The core change creates an option for applicants to hire a private professional provider to check plans for residential permits (limited to 1–10 dwelling units and up to 40 feet in height) when a local jurisdiction’s estimated timeline to determine compliance exceeds 30 business days or when the agency has not declared compliance within 30 days after the application is deemed complete. The private professional provider must be a licensed engineer or architect with specified credentials and must have no financial interest in the permit; the act also imposes an indemnification obligation on the applicant for construction arising from the private-provider plans and provides immunity to the public entity for discretionary or ministerial acts related to permit issuance under this pathway. The measure is temporary, with the private-provider option available through January 1, 2036, and the statute applies to all cities, including charter cities, based on statewide-findings about housing timelines.

Mechanisms establishing how the pathway functions are laid out in detail. After an application is deemed complete, the city or county must provide an estimated timeframe for determining compliance; if that timeframe exceeds 30 business days, or if compliance has not been determined within 30 days, the applicant may hire a private professional provider at the applicant’s sole expense. The applicant must notify the city or county of intent to hire within five business days after the trigger events. If a private provider undertakes the plan-checking, the provider must file an affidavit under penalty of perjury stating whether the plans comply with applicable requirements and that the plan-checking was performed. The applicant must submit a report to the city or county that includes the affidavit, any necessary modifications, and additional information requested by the city. Within 10 business days of receipt, the city or county must issue the permit if compliant or issue a written noncompliance notice specifying required corrections; if no action is taken within 10 days and the affidavit indicates compliance, the permit is deemed approved and the local agency is deemed in compliance with applicable permit-issuance requirements. The arrangement also requires the applicant to indemnify the local agency for damages or injuries arising from construction conducted under the private-provider plan checks and maintains public-entity immunity for discretionary acts. The private-provider pathway is limited to small projects and coexists with the traditional local plan-checking process, with a specific resubmission mechanism if noncompliance is found and a defined data-collection requirement beginning in 2027.

Beyond the procedural core, the bill adds a data-reporting element and situates the private-provider option within a broader policy context. Beginning April 1, 2027, and through the sunset, jurisdictions must include in their annual government reporting the number of residential building permits reviewed by the city or county, the number reviewed by a private professional provider, and the number of full-time equivalent staff directly involved in permit processing, broken out by plan review versus final issuance. The act asserts that the changes address a statewide housing concern and clarifies that the new provisions apply to all cities; there is no state reimbursement, and local costs would be borne by the applicants and any associated fees the local agency may charge to defray plan-checking costs. The framework preserves local authority to contract for plan checks and to charge related fees, while creating an optional private pathway intended to augment the current permit-review system for small residential projects. The measure interacts with existing statutory timelines, including deemed-complete concepts, and references the Government Code reporting structure to anchor the new data obligations.