Oakland\u2019s permitting woes cause headaches for customers and can cost Oakland desperately needed revenue in the form of permit and developer fees, as well as the lost property taxes and other dollars that would have flowed into city coffers if more buildings had gone up. At their worst, these problems can lead to systemic challenges for the city and the region. Oakland has a state-set target of building thousands of new homes<\/a> in the next couple of years, and macroeconomic factors like interest rates have nearly ground that process to a halt<\/a>. The bureaucratic rigamarole only makes it worse.<\/p>\n \u201cJust the idea of doing another project right now in Oakland, it\u2019s just not worth it,\u201d veteran architect and former Pinole mayor Tim Banuelos<\/a> said in an interview in 2024. His firm handles everything from ADUs to apartment building design and remodeling. \u201cOnce you get to the actual planners, those guys are all really good. It\u2019s getting to them that\u2019s the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Fewer people pursuing permits hurts Oakland\u2019s finances. The city\u2019s Planning and Building Department is unique in that, since 2006, it\u2019s been funded by fees from the services it provides<\/a>, rather than the city\u2019s general budget. In 2024, permit fees paid for 209 staff in the department who work on various aspects of development services, from permit approvals to building code enforcement and engineering. Without those fees, the department couldn\u2019t oversee development in Oakland and would have to dip into the city\u2019s burdened general fund.<\/p>\n Back in 2020, the city assured the fed-up builders and homeowners that it would finally do something about the permitting mess. In 2023, Oakland hired Robin Abad, the city\u2019s first \u201cpermit ombuds.\u201d He and staff from several departments have been working since then to eliminate the stumbling blocks and streamline the permitting process. The project not only addresses permits for housing and other buildings, but also for new businesses, special events, entertainment venues, dispensaries, and more.<\/p>\n Mayor Barbara Lee has also made permit reform a cornerstone of her first year in office. Early on, she announced an expansion of the types of businesses that can open in commercial areas without extensive review, and she secured $3 million to upgrade permitting software in the budget passed by the City Council in the spring.<\/p>\n \u201cI know firsthand how frustrating it can be to navigate city processes,\u201d Lee said in a press release. \u201cThe city should be a partner, not a roadblock, in getting your business or home renovation or development off the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n Altogether, Oakland has instated a sweeping array of reforms to the permitting process, some newly launched this fall and others dating back a year or two. Many of the battle-scarred builders we talked to said they rejoiced when they heard about the changes.<\/p>\n Others said it\u2019ll take more than tweaks for the permit system to function well.<\/p>\n \u201cSisyphean\u201d sagas trying to build in Oakland To understand the significance of the new changes, it helps to understand what seeking a permit has been like in Oakland in recent years.<\/p>\n One North Oakland homeowner\u2019s kitchen renovation project a few years ago was typical of the stories we\u2019ve heard. What seemed like a straightforward job turned into a saga marked by lengthy delays and poor communication.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took months for the permit,\u201d the homeowner, who asked not to be named over fear that her project could face further delays, told us in an interview at the time. \u201cNo one ever answered voicemails or emails for the simplest questions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This was not too long into the pandemic, and the planning and building departments, she said, were \u201cwalled off like a fortress.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Around the corner from City Hall, Oakland\u2019s permit center is located right inside the doors of 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza, a gray-and-brick government building. You take a number and are prompted to wait on the ground floor before getting called upstairs, where city staffers from different departments sit behind a counter, assisting customers.<\/p>\n Many of Oakland\u2019s problems, veterans of the permitting process told us, date back to the start of the pandemic, when the counter closed to comply with public health orders.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore the pandemic, the system was basically working, in the sense that anyone could go\u201d to the permit center downtown, developer and property owner Athan Magganas told The Oaklandside earlier this year. He\u2019s built a number of small and large residential and mixed-use properties in the East Bay.<\/p>\n A few years ago, \u201cThey said, \u2018Ooh, we reopened,\u2019\u201d Magganas recalled. But the days and hours were limited. \u201cThen they\u2019d say they could only take the first 22 people,\u201d he said. \u201cAt 12 p.m., they\u2019d take lunch for an hour. You\u2019d never be able to get a permit off the bat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The North Oakland homeowner recalled visiting the center once it partially reopened in 2022. There, she encountered dozens of frustrated people waiting in line, looking like the makings of a mob.\u00a0<\/p>\n YOUR PERSPECTIVE \u201cHave people who can respond in a remotely timely fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHire a bunch more planners.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHave staff return calls and emails within 24 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey need to just issue the permit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe need an audit of impact fees and permit fees.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHave a fast-track line for professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMore walk-in hours.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018This is torch-and-pitchfork territory,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n she also said something that would be repeated, almost word for word, throughout our reporting for this story: \u201cThere are some really good people there. But it took months and months and months to find out the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n Many people brought up the dreaded voicemail message.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019ll ring and ring, and then you\u2019ll get the voicemail,\u201d said Banuelos, the architect. \u201cThen you go to leave a message, and they haven\u2019t set up their voicemail. If I was working at a job and I didn\u2019t answer my voicemail, I would be fired. And to be a public entity and not have any way to talk to the public, or have the public talk to you, is criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n Those tedious exchanges, we heard, impacted clients and threatened the sustainability of projects.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you justify to someone, \u2018Hey, the city\u2019s process is going to cost you another $3,000 to $4,000 in my time?\u2019\u201d Banuelos said.<\/p>\n People in and outside of the city both told us that several permit counter staff quit during the first years of the pandemic. The vacancies left in their wake weren\u2019t filled for ages. Morale plummeted for staff and customers alike.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSome people, of course, are jerks,\u201d said a former counter staffer who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity. \u201cBut a lot have the right to be angry.\u201d<\/p>\n During the first years of the pandemic, city leadership flaunted the increased ability to pursue permits digitally and work with staff online; while the center was closed, email never sleeps. But when the center reopened, the still-short staff had to juggle both the in-person visits and the 24\/7 electronic inquiries.<\/p>\n One employee could get 300 emails a day.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s wild, the volume they are expected to deal with,\u201d said the former staffer around that time. \u201cIt\u2019s impossible for staff to keep that spigot from overwhelming them.\u201d<\/p>\n Some projects hit a tangle of snags.<\/p>\n For two years, a homeowner named Max has attempted to get a pre-fabricated ADU installed and fully permitted on his Longfellow property \u2014 which was already zoned for two structures. At first, he was told to expect completion in April 2024. But then a permit expired while Max\u2019s contractor and the city were at an impasse over a decision; the online payment system went down at a critical moment; and changes to the law meant the contractor\u2019s license was no longer valid for the work.\u00a0<\/p>\n When we spoke in November, Max was still awaiting final inspection.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would anyone try to build in Oakland if it\u2019s this much of a Sisyphean debacle?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n A raft of reforms If you apply for a permit tomorrow, next week, or in 2026, there\u2019s hope you\u2019ll have a smoother experience than the people we\u2019ve spoken to over the past few years.<\/p>\n First off, there are simply more people available to help you.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s permit center now has 26 employees assisting customers in a variety of departments, including planning and building, transportation, fire, and more. That\u2019s nine more people than in the early days of the pandemic, and two more than before COVID-19. The planning and building permit counter alone is at six people now, after hitting a low of two, Abad said.<\/p>\n And the place is open way more often.<\/p>\n As of this month, developers like Magganas, architects like Banuelos, engineers, contractors, new homeowners, and all can drop in from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Monday through Thursday, or schedule appointments for any weekday afternoon. And they can now make those appointments in one place online, regardless of the department.<\/p>\n In many cases, the permitting process itself has been slashed significantly. Until recently, constructing a house or a medium-sized building required extensive \u2014 and often expensive \u2014 review by the city for environmental and design compliance. There was a built-in period for public input, and the findings from the review could also be appealed, further delaying or sometimes even killing a project.\u00a0<\/p>\n In July, the City Council adopted planning code amendments<\/a> allowing most residential projects with up to 30 units \u2014 everything from a duplex to a three-story apartment building \u2014 to earn that initial approval \u201cover the counter,\u201d so long as they meet new design standards. That near-automatic approval reduces the review time for most buildings from 10 months to two, according to the city.<\/p>\n The new rules, adopted in part to comply with a range of new state laws encouraging housing production, apply to both market-rate development and affordable development.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis was some super heavy lifting on the part of the planning bureau here,\u201d Abad said.\u00a0<\/p>\n And the city plans to eliminate its zoning and building worksheets, which have long been required as the first steps before even starting an application. That\u2019s expected to cut 52 days of staff review time for each permit.<\/p>\n Building permits for a number of smaller projects also don\u2019t require in-person meetings anymore. Instead of a week of back-and-forth and a visit to the permit center cashier (who takes permit fees) for things like roofing, plumbing, and insulation, applicants can now get and pay for a permit online in a matter of minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over 8,000 of these same-day permits were pulled last year, according to Oakland \u2014 as opposed to zero in 2022. Next year, the city plans to offer the same access for bathroom renovation, window replacement, and more.<\/p>\n \u201cThe improvements are gradual and overlapping,\u201d Abad told us in October, but they\u2019re concrete. \u201cWe\u2019re not alone amongst cities in trying to recover from the pandemic.\u201d He\u2019s excited for visitors to start noticing a change.<\/p>\n When we caught up with Banuelos this month, he said he\u2019d turned down projects in Oakland since we first spoke last year, after confronting a series of delays and glitches on an addition to a house in Montclair. But hearing about some of the reforms, the architect said he\u2019d consider working here again.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounds like they\u2019ve gotten a little bit more real about what needs to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Some more reforms on the horizon are designed to cut out the need for applicants to contact staff with minor questions or to communicate with multiple representatives.<\/p>\n A \u201cdigital scoping tool\u201d slated for next year will help applicants figure out which permits they need for their project, how to apply, and the estimated costs, according to the city. Right now, applicants often need to scour the web and city code and engage in lengthy back-and-forths with staff to figure out those answers.<\/p>\n Once a project is in the works, the city intends to offer a single online process for plan review, instead of a dizzying system in which different departments send disparate feedback in separate places.<\/p>\n Will the changes work?<\/p>\n A new homeowner named Matt spoke to us as he was waiting for an appointment at the permit center last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t want his last name printed because he was ditching work to catch the brief opening.\u00a0<\/p>\n Matt said he was caught in a \u201cfinger-pointing\u201d fight between the city and the East Bay Municipal Utility District over a sewer lateral. When buying or selling a house in the East Bay, you need to make sure you have a lateral that\u2019s working and compliant. If you can\u2019t get a certificate declaring that in time for the transfer, you can obtain a 180-day extension<\/a> from EBMUD by putting down a $4,500 deposit.<\/p>\n Matt had paid that money and ensured his sewer lateral was fixed and functional. But he couldn\u2019t get the chunky deposit back from the utility until city inspectors declared it compliant. And that was taking some time. Meanwhile, EBMUD was \u201csending increasingly threatening notices,\u201d Matt said.<\/p>\n He was able to check the status of the project on the city portal, but not all of the notations were clear to him. Without an easily accessible human to help him sort things out, he said, \u201cI tried to use ChatGPT to navigate it.\u201d<\/p>\n Like many of the issues we encountered in our reporting, Matt\u2019s wouldn\u2019t be completely eliminated by Oakland\u2019s new reforms. But his pain would likely be eased.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sewer lateral repairs have just been added to the list of projects eligible for same-day digital permits, Abad said. While this wouldn\u2019t address Matt\u2019s inspection delay, it would speed up the work to get to that point, and will come in handy for other property owners dealing with, say, an emergency rupture.<\/p>\n And someone in Matt\u2019s position will now have more options for coming into the center to get help from a staffer.<\/p>\n We also spoke with Laura Blair, the COO of Buildzig<\/a>, an Oakland developer that does all sorts of properties but has a special focus on ADUs \u2014 backyard cottages, in-law units, and the like.<\/p>\n \u201cBuilding an ADU takes four to six months,\u201d Blair told us last year. \u201cIt\u2019s a quick process. The problem is getting the ADU permitted.\u201d<\/p>\n The state and city have passed a slew of laws in recent years aiming to make it easier to build ADUs, because they\u2019re quicker, cheaper, and less offensive to neighbors than bigger, imposing buildings, but still add housing stock.\u00a0<\/p>\n About a year ago, Blair helped a client obtain a state grant and low-interest loan from the city for low-income homeowners building an ADU. Despite the incentives from the government, it still took ages to get permits in hand, said Blair, who once worked for the city herself.<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes multiple emails to find out the project status,\u201d she said at the time. And once you got done with the planning stage, she said, it was \u201cnot super intuitive\u201d to figure out how to then submit to the building division. Already, the city had made improvements to the process, she acknowledged, \u201cbut it\u2019s not something that someone without specialized knowledge\u201d could easily navigate.<\/p>\n Blair said it\u2019s been tough not to be able to give clients a clear timeline, especially since ADUs are often built to meet urgent personal needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey want to know, how long is Mom going to live in a precarious situation?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n When we caught up with Blair this fall, she said the process does go faster now: \u201cI think they worked through their backlog.\u201d<\/p>\n And one new change in particular will make a tangible difference for applicants like her. Starting in October, the city began accepting \u201cone-stop digital applications\u201d for ADUs attached to single-family homes. A number of other common permits come with this option now, too.<\/p>\n \u201cThis replaces a paradigm of multiple in-person submittals to various different departments,\u201d Abad said. \u201cIt\u2019s moving towards a sort of universal project application.\u201d<\/p>\n Blair said she\u2019s heartened by some of the bureaucratic progress, but noted that the new reforms don\u2019t address another key area for builders: cost. The permit fee for a small ADU has risen, and is compounded by other fees developers have to pay, she said.<\/p>\n The expenses and delays burden the regular homeowners and independent professionals the most, said Oakland-based architect Stephen Verner<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a large development, you\u2019re prepared for battle. The developer will have a team in place, and you know you\u2019ll have to do some amount of due diligence to get a permit,\u201d he said. \u201cWith a house, people don\u2019t have that money and time set aside.\u201d<\/p>\n Budget-strapped Oakland also may lack the funds to fix problems as swiftly as other places. Wealthier cities have more resources to make permit-seekers\u2019 lives easier and the built environment stronger.<\/p>\n![\"20251007_StateoftheCity_EG_12\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251007_StateoftheCity_EG_12.jpg\")
Mayor Barbara Lee has put an emphasis on improving Oakland\u2019s permitting system during her first year in office. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
\n![\"permit](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/permit-hell-5.jpg\")
Customers sign in and get a number on the ground floor of Oakland\u2019s permit center at 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza. Credit: Natalie Orenstein\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
From 2023 to 2025, we asked people what single thing they\u2019d change about Oakland\u2019s permit system if they had a magic wand. Some of their responses:<\/p>\n
\n![\"permit](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/permit-hell-7.jpg\")
Robin Abad, Oakland\u2019s first permit obuds, tells the City Council about new reforms in November 2025. Credit: Natalie Orenstein\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"permit](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/permit-hell-6.jpg\")
Oakland\u2019s permit center advertises its expanded hours. Credit: Natalie Orenstein\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/large-ADU-tour-Montgomery-5.jpg\")
The city and state have tried to make it easy to build ADUs, but some developers and homeowners say they still encounter delays getting permits (file photo). Credit: Natalie Orenstein<\/p>\n
![\"Permit](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Permit-hell-3.jpg\")
Jeffrey Tollefson didn\u2019t know what he was getting into when he bought his house in Prescott. Credit: Natalie Orenstein\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"permit](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/permit-hell.jpg\")
According to the city, parts of Tollefson\u2019s house were built over his property line at some point in the past. Credit: Natalie Orenstein\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n