SEC. 3.400. PERMIT APPLICATION PROCESSING.
§ 3.400
City permit departments must treat all applicants equally without favoritism, process applications in the order received (except for documented public policy reasons like disability access work), and maintain permit prioritization guidelines reviewed by an interdepartmental task force and approved by oversight commissions. The departments must also collect and report data on permit processing times annually.
San Francisco's building, planning, and public works departments must treat everyone the same when reviewing permits—no special treatment based on connections or whether you hire a consultant. They process applications in the order they arrive, unless there's a documented public reason not to (like the project involves public money or fixing an earlier processing mistake). Projects focused on disability access get priority. The departments have a task force that recommends which permit types should be prioritized, and oversight commissions approve those priority lists. Every year, the departments report on how long it takes them to review different types of permits.
- Complex:Subsection (c) is lengthy and establishes a detailed governance structure with multiple interlocking deadlines (initial appointments by day 60, first review by June 30, 2024, ongoing reviews every other year, sunset in 2030), roles, and data-reporting requirements that require careful tracking.
- Controversial:Permit processing prioritization inherently involves decisions about which projects get faster reviews, which some applicants and community members may view as favoring certain project types or industries.
AI-generated · claude-haiku-4-5 · informational only, not legal advice.
Official text
(a) EQUAL TREATMENT OF PERMIT APPLICANTS. It shall be the policy of the Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, the Department of Public Works and the officers and employees of such departments to treat all permit applicants the same regardless of the relationship of the applicant and/or the applicant’s representatives to any officer or employee of the City and County and regardless of whether the applicant hires a permit consultant to provide permit consulting services. Intentional preferential treatment of any permit applicant and/or the applicant’s representatives by any officer or employee of the Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, or the Department of Public Works shall subject the officer or employee to disciplinary action for official misconduct.
(b) APPLICATION PRIORITY. It shall be the policy of the Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, the Department of Public Works and the officers and employees of such departments to review, consider, and process all applications, revisions, corrections and other permit-related material in the order in which that type of material is received unless there is a written finding of a public policy basis for not doing so, such as the involvement of public funds in the project for which the permit is sought, or the response to a delay caused by an earlier procedural error in processing the permit or another permit for the same project. Absent such a finding, any officer or employee of the Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, or the Department of Public Works who intentionally fails to review, consider, and process all applications, revisions, corrections, and other permit-related material in the order in which that type of material is received shall be subject to disciplinary action for official misconduct. The Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, and the Department of Public Works shall each adopt written guidelines for determining when there is a public policy basis for processing permit material out of order and shall periodically review such guidelines. For purposes of this Section 3.400, and any corresponding written guidelines, expediting of work consisting primarily of disability access improvements for real property shall qualify as a public policy basis for processing permit material out of order, on a priority basis.
(c) PERIODIC REVIEW AND COORDINATION OF PERMIT PRIORITIZATION GUIDELINES. The Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, and the Department of Public Works shall review and update their respective permit prioritization guidelines as provided in this subsection (c).
(1) Interdepartmental Permit Prioritization Task Force Review of Permit Prioritization Guidelines.
(A) Establishment of Permit Prioritization Task Force. There is hereby established an interdepartmental Permit Prioritization Task Force (“Task Force”) consisting of five members. Four members of the Task Force shall be appointed by the Director of the Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Director, the Public Works Director, and the President of the Board of Supervisors, respectively. All such appointees shall be City employees and shall serve at the pleasure of their appointing authority; the appointee of the President of the Board of Supervisors shall be an employee or official of the Board of Supervisors. The appointing authorities for the Task Force shall make their initial appointments no later than 60 days after the effective date of the ordinance in Board File No. 230167, creating the Task Force. The Director of the Permit Center or the Director’s designee shall also be a member of the Task Force and shall serve as chair of the Task Force. The Permit Center shall provide administrative support to the Task Force.
(B) Powers and Duties of Task Force. The Task Force shall recommend permit prioritization guidelines for the Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, and the Department of Public Works to the respective department heads and oversight commissions. The Task Force shall create a recommended Citywide list of prioritized permits and project types and shall use that list to recommend changes to the departments’ respective permit prioritization guidelines. The permit prioritization guidelines shall include a goal for the amount of time required for the department’s review of each priority permit type.
(2) Department and Commission Review and Approval of Permit Prioritization Guidelines. The Building Inspection Commission, the Planning Commission, and the Public Works Commission shall approve the permit prioritization guidelines and any changes to such guidelines for the department each commission oversees. The department heads and oversight commissions shall consider the Task Force’s Citywide list of prioritized permits and project types and the Task Force’s recommendations in making modifications to the department’s prioritization guidelines. Each department shall retain discretion to designate department-specific prioritized permits.
(3) No later than June 30, 2024, the Task Force shall approve the recommended Citywide list of prioritized permits and project types, make recommendations to the Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, and the Department of Public Works for updates to their respective prioritization guidelines, and each such department and oversight commission shall approve any modifications to its prioritization guidelines.
(4) Ongoing Review of Prioritization Guidelines. Following the first review process required by subsection (c)(3) of this Section 3.400, the Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, and the Department of Public Works shall review their prioritization guidelines prior to June 30, 2026 and no later than June 30 every other year thereafter and, with commission approval, make any changes deemed necessary or appropriate. The Director of the Permit Center may reconvene the Task Force by providing notice to the appointing authorities of the Task Force members, upon determining that it is in the public interest to modify the recommended Citywide list prioritized permits and project types and/or to recommend modifications to one or more of the departments’ prioritization guidelines.
(5) Data Collection and Reporting. The Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, and the Department of Public Works shall collect data on the processing time for each permit type included in their respective permit prioritization guidelines. On an annual basis at least 60 days prior to the reporting deadline to the Mayor and Board of Supervisors specified in this subsection (c)(5), such departments shall each transmit to the Director of the Permit Center data concerning the department’s average processing time for each prioritized permit type in the previous calendar year. The departments may separately report the average time the department is awaiting a response from the permit applicant per prioritized permit type, where such data is available. Where data is available, such departments shall also include data concerning the impact of prioritization on permit types that are not prioritized. Alternatively, the departments may provide the Director of the Permit Center direct access to their electronic permitting systems so that the Director may gather the required data. The Director of the Permit Center shall compile such data and transmit an annual report to the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors no later than June 30, 2025, and every year thereafter no later than June 30.
(6) Sunset. This subsection (c) shall expire by operation of law, and the Task Force shall terminate, on June 30, 2030, unless extended by ordinance. No later than January 1, 2030, the Director of the Permit Center shall submit a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor concerning reauthorization of this subsection (c). In the event that this subsection expires, the City Attorney shall cause it to be removed from the Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code and shall renumber the subsections of this Section 3.400 to conform to the removal of subsection (c).
(d) PERMIT PROCESSING CODE OF CONDUCT. No later than 60 days after the effective date of this Article, the Ethics Commission shall adopt a code of conduct for permit processing (the “Permit Processing Code of Conduct”) containing ethical guidelines for permit applicants, permit consultants, and officers and employees of the Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, the and1 Department of Public Works. The Permit Processing Code of Conduct shall be posted in a conspicuous place in each department, and a copy shall be distributed to each officer of the City and County who makes or participates in making decisions related to permit applications.
(Added by Ord. 115-04, File No. 040907, App. 7/1/2004; amended by Ord. 187-12 , File No. 111047, App. 9/11/2012, Eff. 10/11/2012; Ord. 93-23, File No. 230167, App. 5/26/2023, Eff. 6/26/2023; re-enacted by Proposition D, 3/5/2024, Eff. 4/12/2024, Oper. 10/12/2024)
(Former Section 3.400 added by Ord. 71-00, File No. 000358, App. 4/28/2000; repealed by Proposition E, 11/4/2003)
(Derivation: Former Administrative Code Section 16.5; added by Ord. 438-96, App. 11/8/96)
Editor's Note: For the section added to this Chapter and designated as "3.400" by Ord. 98-14 , see Sec. 3.400A above.
CODIFICATION NOTE
1. So in Proposition D, 3/5/2024.