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Riverside council backs PlanCheck pilot to let qualified design professionals self‑certify certain permits
Summary
The council approved a pilot allowing licensed design professionals to self‑certify eligible low‑risk permit applications, with safeguards including a 10% random audit, liability insurance requirements and phased rollout excluding historic and high‑risk zones.
The City Council approved introducing a pilot program that would let prequalified, licensed design professionals self‑certify certain low‑risk building permits, streamlining approvals while retaining inspections and audit safeguards.
Oscar Mencias, building official, said the PlanCheck initiative is a phased, eligibility‑based program built on models in other jurisdictions. Eligible applicants must be licensed design professionals with a minimum experience threshold; participants must provide professional‑liability and errors‑and‑omissions insurance and an indemnification letter. Staff said roughly 10% of self‑certified projects would be randomly audited (and additional audits triggered by deficiencies) and that projects in historic zones, high fire severity areas and projects requiring environmental review would be excluded from the initial rollout.
Supporters argued the program would reduce delays and costs for straightforward residential and commercial work, while skeptics — including a caller with engineering experience — warned that removing a second technical review increases risk and could shift liability and the burden of oversight onto inspectors and the city.
Council members asked for procedural safeguards, public notice and a future evaluation; a number of members supported adopting the ordinance to start a time‑limited pilot with a follow‑up evaluation at six months. The council approved staff’s recommendation to introduce and adopt the ordinance and to bring the fee schedule back with a noticed public hearing.
What happens next: Staff will prepare implementing resolutions, adjust fees, make software updates and begin a phased rollout if the pilot is finalized; the council requested a scheduled evaluation of the pilot’s results.
