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Planning and Building details permit metrics, LCP update and digitization plans
Summary
Planning & Building Services reviewed staffing, permit volumes, new metrics reporting, the local coastal program update, Fort Bragg office move, and scanning/digitization work; staff said permit applications have fallen toward pre-cannabis-ordinance levels and outlined steps to speed reviews and electronic plan checks.
Planning and Building Services presented priorities for 2025, including continuing day-to-day permit processing, rolling out a public metrics dashboard, starting major technical work on the Local Coastal Program (LCP) update, completing a Fort Bragg office move, and modernizing permit-tracking and records through scanning and new software.
Director Julia Krog said the department has 45 employees with an overall vacancy rate of about 19 percent and staff split across Ukiah and Fort Bragg offices. Krog noted the department had reorganized front-counter administrative functions under the building division and recently gained approved classification changes intended to professionalize permit technician roles.
On permitting, the building division reported a decline in permit applications from the post-cannabis-ordinance peak back toward earlier levels. The department reported issuing more permits than applications in one recent year because of timing of multi-permit jobs and recorded nearly 9,000 inspections in fiscal year 2023-24. Krog and assistant director John Burks said the planning division carries discretionary workloads (225 discretionary permit applications in 2023-24) and supports eight boards and commissions.
Krog highlighted a new public metrics page the department published to provide monthly updates on revenue, workload inventory and case lead times; she said the department had already received a 92% satisfaction rating on its customer survey samples and that the metrics are intended to improve transparency and allow board members and the public to see trends in permit intake and processing times.
On the LCP update, Krog said the county has nearly $2.2 million in grant funding from the California Coastal Commission plus a separate grant for sea-level rise resiliency studies; the LCP update work will run through 2026 and include coastal groundwater and sea-level-rise technical studies. The department said it would return to the board for policy direction as technical work raises policy issues.
Staff said the county plans to replace a sonetting permit-tracking system that is being sunset and that electronic plan review (Bluebeam) and digital permit submittal tools are in use for eligible projects. Krog said staff will bring the 2025 building-code cycle update to the board later in the year, and the department plans to continue work on inland low-intensity camping zoning and inland short-term rental zoning.
Ending: Planning staff said they will continue to bring ordinance amendments, technical studies and fee proposals to the board and asked supervisors to review and provide feedback on department metrics and the LCP outreach as the county advances draft technical work.
