City of San Diego Development Services Department

Chris P

I went there today to check up on the status of my plans, which are an issuance department, but I have not received any corresponding email or communication. Very difficult to contact that department to get a status, so I decided to go in person. No one is in the building except the guard and he said that walk-ins are not available. He said most of the staff is working from home and very few people are in the building. He recommended going online to schedule an appointment. This building has changed drastically since the last time I came here a few years ago. The first few floors of the building have been converted into shelters. There are a lot of people sleeping on the streets around the building, with many tents and makeshift sleeping areas. The two stairs that are used to access the department services building wrecks of urine and feces. Although there were some employees cleaning up around the building, there was still a lot of trash surrounding the building and in the steer area. Seems like they just can't keep up with the amount of trash being littered. I find it ironic that the department that should be enforcing sanitation and health and safety of our building structures, are in a building themselves that needs severe work. My guess on why employees have not been instructed to come to work and to remain working from home is because of the conditions of the building. Very ironic and I hope things turn around for development services department. They need more staff and they need a safe place to work.

Jason Phaff

Having a permit completed in a reasonable timeframe is impossible with the city. No one returns your emails or calls. I have had multiple permits waiting for issuance for months and we get nothing from the city. They forget they work for the people of San Diego, the city needs to revamp and remove most of the department.

Peter Dreier

In 25 years as an architect I have never dealt with a building department that is so full of completely unqualified and hostile authoritarians. If you have any sense at all, leave San Diego and build your house somewhere else.

John Maltman

New Location, same Development Services. They are finally on a numerical system, but there are no Estimated wait times and every 2 seconds the intercom announces a new number. Which is really annoying, because even though you know you are probably hours away you can’t keep your ears from perking up or glancing at the screen. Hard to focus on a pod, which is necessary if you don’t want to nap or lose your mind. Yesterday, I waited all day from 10am-3 without being seen. Today, I got here at 730. Two permits haven’t been called for me and one Mechanical actually did so that’s an improvement. Next week, I’m hoping to upgrade this rating. There are a lot of good people working here and they do have a backlog of two weeks while they were closed to deal with.