Department of Building Inspection Customer Communication

Dear Customers,

Starting today, the City is launching a new service to streamline and speed up the review and issuance of Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) building permits submitted through the State or Hybrid Program.

The Permit Review Roundtable will quickly and efficiently review plans, provide feedback and answer compliance questions during a live virtual meeting. A 45-minute roundtable meeting will be held on Mondays with the ADU project's design professional, the Department of Building Inspection (DBI), the Planning Department, SF Fire, Public Works and the Public Utilities Commission. We will begin scheduling the roundtables this week and expect the first meetings to kick-off on October 21.

There is no additional charge for having an ADU permit application evaluated through the Permit Review Roundtable.

The project submission process is unchanged. Depending on the project scope, the project sponsor will apply for their ADU building permit using the In-House Review permit application portal.

Once the applicant receives their completeness letter and pays the permit fees, DBI will email the project sponsor an invitation and link for a virtual roundtable session. During that meeting the designer and staff from the relevant permitting departments will review and discuss the City's comments in real time, and address the designer's code and compliance questions. The project's design professional will be required to attend the roundtable discussion. The property owner or project sponsor is welcome, but not required, to attend.

DBI will also email the project sponsor the City's combined comments during the roundtable session so the design professional has their own copy. These comments will be sent as a pdf attachment, so no subscription software, like Bluebeam, is needed.

After the meeting, the design professional will update the plans in response to the City's comments and the revised drawings will be submitted for City review. An additional Permit Review Roundtable meeting will be scheduled to verify the comments have been answered and that the project is ready to issue.

Our goal is to streamline our review process and provide ADU project sponsors and design professionals with clear guidance, a comprehensive set of City comments, and a chance to engage directly with plan review staff to accelerate the review, revision and approval process.

We believe this new process will streamline our review and customer revisions, and allow the City to process ADU applications faster and with less back and forth.

We hope you find this new service useful and welcome your feedback at [email protected].

Thank you for your support and partnership.

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