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San Francisco officials roll out permit‑center changes and a pre‑plan review to speed approvals
Summary
City permit staff presented a package of operational changes — a staffed Permit Center, a pre‑plan check pilot that categorizes projects by expected plan‑check hours, new customer service tools and a digital roadmap — intended to shorten review times and provide clearer timelines for businesses and builders.
At its June meeting, the Building Inspection Commission heard detailed plans for operational changes intended to speed permit approvals and give applicants clearer timelines. Rebecca Mayer, director of the city dministered Permit Center, and Deputy Director Neville Pereira of DBI described a pair of near‑term reforms: a customer‑facing Permit Center that consolidates intake and a pre‑plan check pilot that will screen submittals and route work to plan‑check staff.
The reforms aim to reduce back‑and‑forth and make workloads predictable. "On average, it's about 12 minutes" to wait at the Permit Center, Mayer said, while describing a floor with roughly 91 stations and a majority of counters staffed by DBI. Neville Pereira said the pre‑plan review embeds plan examiners at intake to confirm submittals are complete, assign an estimated level of effort and route projects so smaller jobs are not held behind large ones.
Why it matters: San Francisco has struggled with…
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