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Planning department outlines permit-review process as DBI moves to a new permit‑tracking system
Summary
Planning Department officials presented an overview of land‑use review, priority policies and CEQA requirements and described steps to integrate planning reviews with DBI permit processing. DBI confirmed a commercial off‑the‑shelf permit-tracking contract has been executed and scheduled demonstrations of the citizen portal and mobile inspection devices.
The San Francisco Planning Department briefed the Building Inspection Commission on Sept. 21 about how planning reviews are layered into the building‑permit process and on efforts to modernize public access to permit information.
Jonas Ionin described the department’s structure and the eight priority policies that must be considered before issuing planning approvals — including preservation of neighborhood-serving retail, historic resources, and earthquake safety. He explained that some permits are approved over the counter while others require neighborhood notification, discretionary review or zoning-authorization processes.
Ionin said the Planning Department now reviews roughly 6,300 of DBI’s building-permit applications annually and approves about half of those over the counter; many others require additional neighborhood notification or discretionary review. He emphasized CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) responsibilities for discretionary actions and the department’s updated CEQA checklist.
DBI staff (Pamela Levin) reported that the contract for a commercial off-the-shelf permit tracking system had been executed and a project schedule established; DBI planned demonstrations of a public citizen portal and mobile devices for inspectors in October. Commissioners and staff discussed integrating DBI and Planning tracking and making property-level data more transparent to the public.
Both departments signaled an ongoing effort to coordinate counter services, improve public-facing web tools and reduce delays caused by mismatched processes between planning and building inspections.
