City of San Jose Planning, Building and Code Enforcement Department

Mark Albiar

Their SJPermits.org is a JOKE. Calling will get you nowhere. This city is a joke.

Joshua Fisher

Not only are they still closed when most of the other parts of the state are open, they just changed the online permit portal making it even harder to navigate. I'm 34 and very familiar with computers so its not because I'm not computer literate. Simple permits will take well over a month to get. Larger permits you will be waiting about a year or longer (currently I'm at 1.7 months for my simple like for like multi meter panel replacement on a commercial building.) Hire more people San Jose or fix your system. Its the silicon valley how can you have such bad service??

Eric Calamia

I have been pulling permits from the San Jose Building Department for the last 14 years. I get some of my best work done in their comfortable waiting area while I’m waiting to be called. It allows me to get caught up on estimates and invoices without interruptions! I’m writing this review because I have had issues with two permits, and both times Peng Li helped me solve them. The first one was regarding a very sick customer that wanted to see her remodeled house before too much time slipped by. Peng listened to the situation and helped me get the permit through very quickly. The second time I called on Peng was due to a three month delay for her to receive the plans from permit intake to her desk for review. It was the due to the Covid challenges. I explained, that at the current pace, it would be five months before my customer received her permit. Peng was already processing her portion of the permit review process on schedule, but when she learned of the three month delay she helped get the process sped up and the permit issued. I want to thank Peng, for listing, responding, maintaining quick, responsive communication and helping me achieve the desired result.

Brendan Goggins

As an architect who has worked with permitting at the city of over two decades, I wanted to point out that San Jose has greatly improved their process and they really do work hard to assist me. Every city has policies for safely improving your home. All of the negative reviews I see are do to inexperience or lack of understanding / unreasonable expectations. People are trying to do the minimum possible and pay the minimum possible to get their approvals. Of course these people will be frustrated, as they don't want to hire a professional that knows what they are doing. The City of San Jose is perfectly reasaonable and goes out of their way to assist. The only major issue is time - the city has a huge population and everyone wants to build. Patience is required. The staff is large, but there are bottle neck positions where they have only one or two people in a position that every project needs to pass through. It would be great if the City could hire a few more people at these key positions. I saw thank you San Jose