00:00BaileyAll right, so today on the podcast we are talking about critical project thresholds here in San Diego. Basically, we're gonna be diving into what takes a project from being a small project to a medium project, and then a medium project to a large project. And this is gonna be important because where your project falls on that spectrum is going to dramatically impact how much you're gonna be.
Spending on project fees to the city, as well as how bogged down it might get into permitting regulations and things of that nature. So, Sean, why don't you kick us off here. Tell us what you mean exactly when you mention project thresholds.
00:39Sean CanningGood morning, Billy, and thanks for doing this again. basically I wanted to create a resource that would help people looking to do projects in the city of San Diego to understand the thresholds
between a smaller projects, different scales of medium projects, and a. Much larger project, and the reason I think this is important is because there's a lot of people who are like, Hey, I'm just doing this small addition, or I'm just doing this small A DU. But if you're not careful and you cross one of these thresholds, all of a sudden this small, simple project becomes a medium scale project, which could be, which could require like a series of expensive reports or an extensive permitting process. So this guide that I'm sharing is going to be helpful for somebody who's looking to start a project or somebody who's looking to buy a property to do a project, because this is all important information you need to know as you're planning like a smaller development or a medium scale development. And basically I've taken the information that I've learned over the last 15 years of working as an architect in the city of San Diego and tried to, like really just outline where these thresholds come from in the code. them to you or show them to the people using the, this guide. So that they can clearly understand where the line is and to try to keep their projects on whichever side of the line they think is appropriate. The city of San Diego has a like a. Documented history of taking simple projects and making them into giant projects that require huge reports, let me give you an example here. I'm working on a project in ENC Encanto right now. It's a very simple project. It's A-J-A-D-U within the interior of an existing building existing. So we're not even adding any more square footage and we have to replace a patio which is supported by a retaining wall, which is failing. so you would think on the surface this would be a very easy project but the city of San Diego makes this a very, very challenging project. And sometimes the difference of a couple inches, or sometimes even like a half of an inch of certain elevation heights put the. Could put my client on the hook for a very expensive report and a very expensive permit. So you just need to know where the thresholds.
are. And then when you submit for plan check, you need to know where those thresholds are, listed in the code. So you, so that gives you the position of argument with the building department. And then you can keep your small projects, small projects, and keep your medium projects, medium projects at the scale they're supposed to be. And I guess I should make one more point before we get started here. I like to always tell clients that there are no simple projects in the city of San Diego. Any project in the city of San Diego is in heaven, inherently going to be more complicated than you think it's going to be. But what I like to do is try to, reduce the regulation, reduce the peripheral reports that basically nobody reads, and just try to cut through the red tape and help my clients do that.
03:36BaileyDefinitely. And just to clarify, so everything we're talking about today, people can download a free guide that will be linked in the description. All they need to do is leave their email address and then they'll get a very in-depth comprehensive report on everything we're talking about today. So, Sean, to kick off the conversation, I guess answer this question briefly.
I'm sure many people are wondering. Is it actually possible to design a, we'll, say a small project, obviously, in San Diego? So think a, you know, small addition, a renovation, maybe even a small A DU without the help of a professional architect.
04:13Sean CanningI think a challenge, but there still is an avenue to do that. And I think that's the first threshold you cross. If you wanna do a very small, simple project and you have a budget that requires you to avoid the fees of an architect or a structural engineer, there still is a way for. Homeowners to do this. it certainly takes a lot of research and you have to be savvy. You have to be willing to, probably make a couple mistakes in the process, the entry level projects, and I'm talking about like, when entry level, a project that requires a permit, not something that, people would do without a permit, but like the first level of project that requires a permit. This is a project that. If you scale, if you design your project correctly, you can do this without an architect. You do not need me to help you do this. So this is probably a good opportunity for me to do a screen share here, at the guide and that first category, and then explain how to do a project like that.
on the left side of my screen here is the guide that we're talking about that will help you through this process. And on the right side of the screen here is going to be the corresponding code sections that are mentioned in the guide here. So on page one, or I should say page two of this guide I've, what I'm calling the most simple projects now to do this project. requires you to design the project properly and then you can avoid the architects and you can avoid the structural engineer. so probably the only consultant you would have to hire is a Title 24 consultant. And even that, if you're, patient enough, I guess I should say, you can do your own title 24 report, but it is complicated anyway.
Those things only cost Three, $400, $500 on bigger projects. So it's still cost effective. So the most simple projects include a project that you can use info Bulletin one 40 to design, and the City of San Diego. This is ex exclusive to the city of San Diego. Other municipalities will do this in a different way. So this guide is basically only for people looking to do projects in the city of San Diego, not the county of San Diego. Just the city of San Diego. So the city of San Diego has a pretty, large website. it's almost impossible to navigate, but if you google City of San Diego Info Bulletin one 40, it'll bring you to this page here. And the city's now put, most of their info bulletins into this digital format, which is actually difficult to, to read. But I'm gonna walk you through this. So we have. All of the submittal requirements for this super simple project. You can do this as an owner builder. If you, have the courage to do this and you have the ability to do this, and that could mean that you as the homeowner could build this addition. and it also could mean you as the homeowner get the permit issued in your name and then you subcontract out to, your plumber, your electrician, your framer. this puts you in the driver's seat if you. Want to take on this challenge. And then right here it lists everything you have to submit to, to get this permit.
So you have to follow this guide pretty closely. You have to provide your own set of drawings. and then there's some guidelines on what to do in different overlay zones. So you'd have to be able to. Figure out what overlay zones your lot has. So you can use, San Diego Zap that just Google City of San Diego, ZAPP, and that'll help you figure these things out. this info bulletin would apply to. Single dwelling units and duplex additions. So you can't use this for a new home as far as I know. So it has to be an addition or a duplex. also fairly certain you cannot use this for an A DU, so it can't be like a ground up a DU. So when I'm talking about the most simple project, existing single family home or an existing duplex, and you're going to be altering it or.
Building an addition. also has to be single story. So that's going to be what establishes the first threshold here. If you were thinking about doing a second story edition on your existing home, is not the process for you. You are already gonna bump your project up beyond this level of project. If I continue down on the info bulletin here, you can see it. Here's a link to some fees, in on inspections here, different references, but this is the table that is going to help you calculate all of the structural design for your project. So for example. Here we have, a rafter size table, a jo size table, and then it talks about the spacing.
So this is an on center spacing. If you have two by sixes at 16 inches on center, which is your standard, allowed to space, span between these If you're using shingles or tiles on your roof, if you have a more, if you have a heavier roofing system, this will not work for you. you have to. Dial your project down to meet these requirements, shift it into this category of the most simple project. And, I'm gonna scroll down on this info bulletin. You're gonna see how detailed it can get. So here we're talking about some cantilevered, floor joists, rafter heel connection to ceiling joists. we're gonna have different spans for roof floor, different sheathing types. already Billy, this is getting pretty complicated, wouldn't you say?
09:29BaileyYeah. I'm always struck by the contrast between how. for example, if you flip through Architectural Digest, the famous magazine, how like Creative everything looks and how beautiful everything is. But then behind the scenes architecture's very technical as you're showcasing here.
Personally, I would just hire an architect, save myself the time and stress. But that's just me.
09:51Sean CanningYeah. But you know.
it, for me to do a
09:53Baileylike this, it could cost $20,000 because you're gonna fall into the category of like our minimum projects level. So you can save that money or you can hire a drafter who would be able to put a project together like this. But also if you were designing an addition with this exact section, you can copy and paste this section into your floor plans, into your, submittal plans, and that should be adequate. so it looks like it allows for a gable roof and it looks like it allows for a shed roof with a lower slope, but there is no provision here for a hip roof. So we're especially not for you don't have a flat roof or a butterfly roof. The more complicated roofs. So you have to work within what they're giving you here to really thread the needle into this simple project category. and you have to be able to read through this whole thing and, it's like a giant homework assignment basically. but that's basically the end of the info bulletin. And if you could make this work, you're gonna fall into this category, which I'm calling the most simple project, and that's the cost and easiest process. To do a project in the city of San Diego that requires a permit.
Got it, and we'll link that resource below so people can navigate directly to it. Now, relatively quickly, why don't we talk about the three key elements here of the small projects that people should be aware of. First talk about when a public improvement sort of a deal could be triggered by a project.
namely this is going to be most commonly sidewalks, for example. So walk us through when a public improvement, like a sidewalk replacement could get triggered. I.
11:24Sean CanningOkay, so I'm calling this the next threshold here because, I suppose in theory you could be doing this simple project and a few things by. Mistake and trigger a public improvement. And a public improvement has been, this has been a topic of contention for me and the building department for quite a long time people are trying to do simple projects and they zig where they should zag, and all of a sudden the. The permit office requires them to replace their sidewalk, replace their driveway, eliminate their driveway, curb cut, so then you'd have no more driveway, or even dedicate part of their front yard to the city of San Diego. And I am like adamantly against this because people should be able to build things on their lot at a low cost or a reasonable cost without. Absorbing all these additional, construction costs, like on the periphery, so a public improvement. This is where this all starts. The city of San Diego goes around the city like maybe every decade, and they change their standards for how they want sidewalks and driveways and alleys and streets to be. one of the things that's very popular right now is they want to increase the width. Of the right of way between the face of the curb and the front property line because they want to have trees in the median, in the grass median between the sidewalk and the curb, and that's being pushed from the state level.
With the Climate Action Plan, so there's a state initiative to increase shading on sidewalks. This would ultimately make California a more walkable, state, which is good. but when the city changes their standard, which is the distance from that face of curb to the front property line, than when you submit for certain types of per.
Hermits and you trigger public improvements, then the city could be like, Hey, we need you to dedicate the front two feet of your property to the city so that front of your property now meets the new city standard that they created, a year ago, or five years ago, or 10 years ago. can you imagine you're trying to do, a small addition and then all of a sudden to be
13:39BaileyAnd then.
13:39Sean CanningThe permit for that addition? You now have to spend $50,000 on demolishing your existing sidewalk demolishing your existing curb cut, which is the entry from the street to the driveway, and then rebuilding it all to the city standard like that would blow up the budget on a project like this. What is exempt from public improvements? You need to know this because you wanna keep your project simple and you don't want to, do the wrong thing and then be on the hook for these. this is the code section right here that talks about exemptions from, to provide public improvements incidental to a building permit. Now, I also want to say that the engineering department is the department that enforces this, and I have talked to the supervisor of that department and his, how should I say this nicely? His understanding of this code section Kind of outrageous. let's go through, these are the types of things that would be exempt. So if you are going to build an accessory building, such as a residential garage, that garage does not trigger public improvements. It is likely that you'll submit a permit for a garage. And the building department will say, you need to do public improvements. And if you don't know this code section, you have no stance to argue with them. And the people who are issuing these comments, they do not know this code section because you're getting entry level employees in the engineering department who are not trained because supervisor, the supervisors do not do a good job of training them. And they have all of their comments pre-written and they just go down the box and they click them all and they send them off to you. And now it's your problem. To resolve those comments. And if you don't know where these things are in the code, you're gonna be, and you're gonna end up thinking that you need to fix your sidewalk. By the way, if you have to do public improvements, you're not just submitting the building department, the building permit, you have to now submit for a whole right of way permit, which comes with additional fees, additional drawings, and that brings a lot of cost, most public right away. permits are gonna cost about $5,000. And if you hire a professional to do those drawings, like a civil engineer who generally does ours, that's another $5,000. So in addition to the cost, the construction cost, you're also paying about $10,000 more in paperwork for this. okay, so the very important thing to understand the definition of accessory buildings. accessory dwelling units. is. You cannot argue this point because the code has a definition section which clearly identifies accessory buildings, accessory structures, and accessory dwelling units as the same thing. So it's, it is very likely that you will submit a project for an A DU. Which should be a very small, simple project. And you'll get a comment that says you need to submit for a right of way drawing. need to submit engineering drawings for that right of way. And you need a right of way permit. And you can back to the,plan reviewer and you can say, no, I'm building an accessory building. And he could say. A DU is not an accessory building, if you go to chapter 11 of the municipal code, you can read the definition and you can prove to him that he's wrong. we have to do this over and over again for our clients. So this is a very important one in my opinion. another thing that you can do here is if you have an existing building. And you are going to be doing more than a hundred thousand dollars worth of work, which is still a small project, by the way, because construction cost is high right now. you could, once you go over this, the building department can say, now you need to do public improvements if you're doing an addition to an exist, to a existing single dwelling unit. subsection E should have you covered here. Now this has been a big point of contention with the engineering department because they believe that an addition is not an alteration to a single dwelling unit, and I.
would categorically disagree with that. an alteration should certainly include, an addition. But if you were to do this to a duplex, that's not going to fall into this category. So if you do more than a hundred thousand dollars of work to a duplex structure, you are gonna be on the hook for public improvements. And, as long as that's not an accessory structure.
So if you do two Aus. No public improvements if you do half a million dollars of work to a single dwelling unit. No public improvements if you do $101,000 of improvements. To a duplex structure, which is made up of dwelling units, you're going to trigger public improvements. So there's the threshold, so you can avoid this. also, by the way, the city of San Diego has a valuation table. I should actually, you can Google this. Google City of San Diego valuation table And look at construction Class V. B, so that's, Roman numeral five B, and that's gonna be what the city of San Diego values, one square foot of construction cost. Last I checked, I think it was like $111,000, which is below market rate. So you have to use that table, which is, it's all listed here, and dial this in under a hundred thousand dollars. If your project is not an accessory dwelling unit or a single dwelling unit. very important. And while we're here, I should also mention if you're proposing an a DU project that prohibits you from using the existing curb cut for your driveway. So if you're building an A DU over your existing driveway and that, and you no longer have. The code required space an off street parking space, then.
you're going to trigger your,public, improvement to close up the curb cut. And you almost never wanna do this. So that's just another there.
19:14BaileyYeah, it sounds like the public improvements need to be avoided at all costs For sure. There. So last two things here before we transition to the medium-sized projects. Let's talk about fire sprinklers, which are very expensive. When do they actually get triggered on a project?
19:32Sean CanningSo this has been a big, misconception because a lot of people think every new structure requires fire sprinklers, but that's actually not true. new dwelling unit requires fire sprinklers, new ADUs. Could require fire sprinklers or could not require fire sprinklers. So let's break down the nuance here a little bit more. If you were to take an existing home that does not have fire sprinklers and you are to do an addition to that home, there's a good chance you can avoid. Fire sprinklers if you choose to avoid fire sprinklers. by the way, I'm not here to say fire sprinklers are good, or fire sprinklers are bad. I'm here to say these are the things that you can do to give yourself the option to decide whether you want to install the fire sprinklers or decide if you do not want to install the fire sprinklers. So if you look at this bulletin, technical bulletin I guess that's. Residential development. three dash one, which is listed right here for an existing structure with no fire sprinklers, need to do both of these things. the total floor, to trigger fire sprinklers, you need to do both of these things.
Number one, the total floor area of the dwelling unit needs greater than 3,600 square feet, so that's already a very large. Building. and number two, the floor area addition needs to exceed 50% of the floor area of the existing dwelling unit. So let's take an example where you have an existing home.
It's a thousand square feet. You wanna double the square foot footage of that. So you're gonna now add a thousand square feet resulting in a 2000 square foot dwelling unit that would not trigger fire sprinklers to that dwelling unit. provided that the existing dwelling unit does not start with fire sprinklers. So that's how you get around fire sprinklers. That's how you give yourself the option to install fire sprinklers or don't install fire sprinklers for your addition. Now for the A DU, is how you're gonna avoid fire sprinklers, and you can look that up in this code section here, this technical bulletin, the existing home.
It does not have fire sprinklers. 'cause you have to have an existing dwelling unit before you can build that first a DU. So if the existing dwelling unit does not have to have fire sprinklers, then your a DU does not have to have fire sprinklers. so that is key. So a lot of people are confused about this because they think brand new A DU that's gonna be, that's gonna need fire sprinklers. I guess another thing I should mention is there could be potential benefits to installing fire sprinklers. not only in terms of safety of the occupants and preservation of the structure, if you're in an area that's vulnerable to fire, but there could also be some, home insurance, like savings.
So there could be some benefits there. one other thing I also wanna mention, like a little nuance, which has developed recently in the code, you're gonna start using the a DU bonus program to build ADUs, that is going to be off script of this. So once you tri, once you start to use an incentive program like the A DU bonus program, the city of San Diego has now said that kind of changes the game and those a DU bonus, a d. Those bonus ADUs need the fire sprinklers. So the one thing that is a little bit unclear right now is, let's say you had a, an existing duplex, then you wanted to build two ADUs by right? then you wanted to build two more ADUs using the a DU bonus program. If you interpret the code, literally only the two ADUs using the A DU bonus program would require fire sprinklers long as the existing duplex does not have fire sprinklers. So if that's true, which is, there's so much gray area in this code, it's hard to tell. But that would mean the first two ADUs by right would not need fire sprinklers. The second two adu, you're using the incentive program of the A DU bonus program would require fire sprinklers. fire sprinklers are not the. And all be all on a project, but they could require you to upgrade your utilities if you're not careful. So that's an, that's a whole nother thing. I think we're gonna get into that later. and it often would require a backflow preventer, so there's some additional infrastructure that's needed. So it does tick up the cost of a simple project.
23:36BaileyGot it. And now the final thing to talk about here, which I believe is a state requirement, but correct me if I'm wrong, and that is gonna be solar panels being required on all new builds as I understand it. So is that correct? And if so, are there ways to avoid the solar panel requirement?
23:55Sean CanningOkay. And Bill, you're probably wondering why people would not want to install solar panels, right?
24:00BaileyWell, I would be pro solar panel, especially in a place like California, but I could definitely see why people might not want to just to save costs in the short, immediate term. But I'm sure obviously solar panels over a long enough period of time, definitely, you know, pencil out and resulted in a return on investment.
24:19Sean CanningWell, that generally would be true if we didn't have a,giant corporation running our energy here in California. in the city of San Diego, we deal with San Diego Gas and Electric. It's, I think it's like the second highest energy rates in the United States, and it may be the highest in the continental United States. and they continue to devalue the benefit of solar panels on, for homeowners. So there's two reasons why a homeowner may not want to install solar panels. maybe three. So the first reason would be. like I was saying, s with new plans, solar panels do not pay them. Do not pay back. So if you were to install solar panels, you could spend $20,000 to install the solar panels in your home and you would never get that money back.
financially it would be a bad investment when you factor in stge,Plans. it just doesn't make sense anymore. only way to make that make sense is to install solar panels and install a solar battery. So that jacks up the cost of your project by 10 to $15,000, just for the battery. So if you wanna do that, solar panels make sense. If you don't wanna install the battery, generally solar panels don't make sense. So that's the probably the number one reason why it's better for you as a homeowner or developer to have the option. To install solar panels or to not install solar panels. so what I'm gonna talk about here now is, how to give yourself that option. The second reason why it may not be a good idea to install solar panels is if you're developing rental units. you as the landlord are usually not paying the electric bill. The tenant is paying the electric bill, and if you want to keep rent as low as possible or keep investment.
as low as possible, then. You wanna do the construction as low as possible, and that includes not installing solar panels. so that's just the nature of developments. These costs of the development get passed onto the renter, and people wonder why rent is so high. It's because of all of these requirements that are required to build these buildings. then the third reason why it may not, the third reason why I'm not even a huge fan of this code is. The benefit of the solar panel is for the occupants of the unit who lives in the unit with the solar panels. But requiring them to be on every single home inflates the cost of construction, which then again, just gets passed on to the home buyer or to the tenant, like I said earlier. So in my opinion, the option to install solar panels is key. so now let me explain the threshold that you're gonna face here. this is also another misconception. think that if you build a new. Units you have to install solar panels and it actually, the code actually did state this for a while, but if you build a new dwelling unit, you need solar panels. you build a new a DU, there is a chance you don't need solar panels and you will not figure that out. Until you have your Title 24 report produced because the solar panels factor into the Title 24 report. And the title 24 report is this energy calculation, which factors in the insulation you have in your floor, walls, and roof. the efficiency of the mechanical system, which is basically your heater and air conditioning and your water heater. It does not take into account at the residential level any of your kitchen appliances or your washer and dryer. So if you're designing a home that is reasonably energy efficient, and basically like any home that you're designing to, the minimum standards of the code is going to meet this category. you're in climates zone seven, which like most of the city of San Diego is. We can design homes up to about 1100 square feet, plus or minus, and those generally would be exempt solar panels. But, sorry, one, one clarification on this. That needs to be an A DU. You cannot do this with a dwelling unit.
You're gonna be on the hook for the solar panels for a dwelling unit. Anyway, you look at it, so that's the threshold here for solar panels.
28:23BaileyGot it. Alright. Yeah, so there's a lot that goes into it clearly, and I feel like it's also important to note that we're recording this right at the end of 2025.
I'm sure this could all change at any point in the future, so just.
28:35Sean CanningIn three.
28:37BaileyExactly, so always check to make sure the code is up to date. Let's now move on though to medium sized projects. So we'll talk about when projects get a bit more complex, starting with water meter upgrades. So this is the utility upgrade you are hinting. Hinting at what exactly could trigger that and how much of an increase in project costs would that result in.
29:01Sean CanningOkay, so you're trying to do a medium sized project, and that is either gonna be something like a large home with lots of bathrooms or maybe a, project with lots of units. There's an existing water meter on your property unless you have a vacant lot. There's an existing water meter. That existing water meter has a pipe that goes from the city's main waterline in the street to the water meter, and then from the water meter onto your private property. The pipe is going to come with a real world constraints of how much water can flow through the pipe based on the diameter of the pipe. existing water meters have a three quarter inch meter. could either fit four. Units with one bathroom each, no dishwashers and no washer and dryers or three units, one bathroom each with a dishwasher in each and the washer and dryer.
And you're gonna be pushing it at that point. And that's a three quarter inch meter. If you need to understand the size of the pipe coming out of your meter, you can get this on your water bill, or you can, you can look into the meter box and try to measure it. That can be challenging sometimes, but you need to understand this and then you need to get this. It's called the water meter data card, which comes right from the California plumbing code. Use the private column here. Add all of your fixtures. So if you have, let's say shower heads, let's say we have four shower heads, we're going to use. multiplier, and that's gonna give us eight fixture units total everything up here. And for a three quarter inch meter, you need to be under 42 fixture units. And then you do not have to upgrade your water meter. Now if you have fire sprinklers, that's one of the reasons why you're gonna tick this number up. So you gotta be real careful with all this. You need to be planning this at the very early onset of the project before you start construction drawings and before you submit for the permit. If you go over your. Meter capacity, the cost of upgrading that. water meter, which includes cutting into the street, is going to be about 30 to $40,000 of labor and it's gonna cost you about $10,000 in paperwork between the right of way permit you're gonna need and the engineering you're gonna need. if you imagine Billy, you don't wanna be planning a hundred thousand dollars Simple Project, which is a bathroom, edition, and that a hundred thousand dollars bathroom edition. in a $50,000 water meter upgrade, that would blow the budget up. So you wanna be careful about this one on the front end.
31:25BaileyDefinitely. Absolutely. Then the next big thing we want to talk about here in the medium size project category is going to be, what exactly is the difference between the R two and R three occupancy, and why exactly should people care?
31:42Sean CanningOkay, so this one is confusing because you have to be. Kind of a, like, this is like, we're talking professional language here. This is like the type of things I talk about with my engineering consultants. It's not the type of thing that homeowners typically understand or know about. so when we talk about occupancy, this is. A term, it's a kind of like a definition in the state building code. Every single type of structure has an occupancy associated with it. If you're gonna build a garage that has an occupancy, if you're gonna build a single family home that has an occupancy, if you're gonna build a duplex that has an occupancy, and if you're gonna build a multifamily project that has an occupancy. And this is a little counterintuitive here, and by the way, this is different than what your real estate agent is, the terms your real estate agent is using you. You talk to a real estate agent. They say this lot has an R two occupancy. What they generally mean is you can build two units. we're talking about here is language from the building code about occupancy. So an R three occupancy project is the low hanging fruit. Of the building code and an R two occupancy is more complicated. what's the difference? here we have the California building, the California residential code here, and I'm gonna go down a little bit, and here it's going to define the difference. So the California residential code covers R three occupancy, the California. Building code covers R two occupancy. So what is R three occupancy? R three occupancy is a detached one and two family dwelling unit and a town home. Those are the only three options. You have to keep it in this simple occupancy. you go above this occupancy, you kick in R two. So let me just re review one more time. Single family home. Our three occupancy, simple project duplex, occupancy, simple project and town home. That's that. A town home means side by side. Without a unit. Over another unit, could do two single family homes on the same lot.
They'd still be R three occupancy. You could do two duplexes, you could do five duplexes on the same lot. And that's R three occupancy. Here's the key differences. R three occupancy residential. Code two occupancy California building code, our three occupancy simple building permit in City of San Diego.
It's a combination building permit. two occupancy. It's a more complicated permit. It requires mechanical, electrical, plumbing, engineering package. You don't need to do that for the combination building permit. Here's another key one. If you keep it to R three occupancy, it doesn't matter if you do 10 duplexes on one lot, no, a DA access required. If you do that on a R two occupancy project, that means. basically have to have a very limited slope from your sidewalk to all the units. This, you may not be able to make an R two occupancy project worked on a slope lot. Also, all your bathrooms are gonna be larger for the clearances. R three occupancy allows for larger windows and doors and reduced fire separation distance.
You may not trigger the fire sprinklers like we talked about earlier, and R two occupancy is always going to require fire sprinklers and then. Here's one of the key things, in my opinion, to keep things simple, when you do an R three occupancy project in the city of San Diego, you get one building inspector for every single trade. So you get to know the guy, you get to know what he's looking for, and generally, he's not gonna be as rigid as when you do the R two project and you're gonna get an electrical inspector, a mechanical inspector, a framing inspector, different inspectors, they're gonna be more specific. You do
35:10BaileyYes.
35:10Sean CanningWhen we're talking about inspections at the city of San Diego, the inspectors provide no value.
They don't actually catch anything. They're not responsible for anything, so they're not helping you. You need to get past those hurdles. So it's better to have a single guy for that. So this is key. And one of the things that we specialize in at 10 70 architecture is designing multi-family projects in an R three occupancy.
So that's when we're doing, four duplexes on a lot. As much as we've done as much as 17 duplexes on a lot, like to keep things simple, down on the red tape, cut through the regulation, keep the cost down, keep the reports down, and that, in my opinion, the best way to do that is to keep your project in an R three occupancy.
35:52BaileyAll right, very good. I I agree with all of that for sure. Keep it as simple as possible, which is probably the exact opposite of what we're about to talk about now as we transition to larger and complex projects. Now it's time for the big one. I'm sure everyone has heard about this, and that is gonna be coastal development permits.
So in case someone hasn't heard about it, quickly explain what a coastal development permit is and what exactly triggers one, and if there are any tips and tricks as well to avoid one potentially.
36:24Sean CanningOkay, so you're going to get a permit for a project Billy. You have the drawings drawn up. You submit them to the building department, you go through their review process. They issue the permit. You build the project. That's a ministerial permit. If you need a coastal development permit, this is a discretionary permit different than a ministerial permit a discretionary permit. You're going to do the drawings for your project. You're going to explain to the neighborhood what you're trying to do, show them the drawings, make this presentation. The neighborhood is gonna say, you know what? know. That project is right in this location. Or, you know what? I don't think that should be three stories.
I think it should be two stories. Now you're gonna go back to your architect, you're gonna redesign the project, you're gonna take it back to the community. The community's gonna say, you know what? Green doesn't look good. I think we'd like to see this in yellow. go back to your architect. You're gonna redesign, re-render, build up your presentation again, go back to the community. They're gonna say, okay, I think we're good. Now you're gonna go for your building permit. Then you're gonna get the permit. Then you're gonna build. This costs time and it costs money to have your architect working over and over again with an. Indeterminate end to the design.
37:31BaileyOkay.
37:32Sean Canningthey also refer to this as like design by, what do they call it?
Design by, like a group design. I forget the exact term. Anytime you're introducing more cooks in the kitchen, you're going to be reducing the quality of the design. Almost always when the professional creates the design and then you go to the amateur for the opinion and the approval, you're going to result in worse architecture. The risk here for the homeowner or the developer is you don't know how much work it's going to take to get from a, to permit, from concept to permit. it could take a. 13 months, we've gotten ADUs in the coastal zone with a coastal development permit done in 13 months. That's pretty fast, it could easily take 24 months, and that time could be holding costs.
You could be accumulating interest on your loan depending on the type of project, or you could just have an unknown amount of. Design fees because maybe the project needs to be redesigned over and over again. this type of project, anytime you have a CDP Coastal Development permit, this is inherently going to be what I would consider to be a large project. the key is how to get exempt. first off, you need to know if you're in the coastal zone. Coastal zones generally. West of Route five. if you are in the coastal zone, there's two types of coastal zone projects. There's the appealable area and then there's the non appealable area. the appealable area is closer to the coast, generally between the first major roadway, from the coast.
so if you're between the first major roadway and the coast, that's generally the appealable area. In, if you're building an A DU, if you're in the non appealable area, it requires a coastal development permit. But they provide a more streamlined process, which is essentially just a, ministerial permit.
I don't know why they don't just change the name, but if you're designing the a DU in the appealable area, that's the full coastal development permit process, minimum 13 months. That's the shortest time we've been able to get a small a DU approved in the appealable area of the CDP, of the coastal zone. Okay.
Let's say you have an existing home. You can maintain 50% of the exterior walls, and they measure that by the top framing member on the wall, which is called the plate, the horizontal, framing member. If you can maintain 50% of that plate, then you. are going to be exempt from a coastal development permit, so that's key. also in certain areas you can add up to 10%. If you're within this appealable area, close to the beach, you can add up to 10% and generally be exempt. so that's another angle. there's another thing here, which I talk about pre-inspection. Pre demolition inspection. So if you're gonna be close to that, 50%. Maintaining 50% of the exterior walls, the city's gonna send out a inspector and they're gonna do a pre demolition inspection. So you can't cut corners here. there's no loophole. you gotta be real careful about this. actually, I just said there was no loophole. This may be a loophole. So let me talk to you about this one.
And this is one I've personally done on my own project in the Coastal Zone. So you cannot convert unconditioned space to an A DU and be exempt from a coastal development permit. So if you have an A garage, you cannot convert that to an A DU and be exempt from a coastal development permit. if you have an existing single family home, you maintain 50% of the exterior walls. You build an addition with your first permit, and then after you get final inspection, you then pull a second permit. To convert that addition into an A DU, you would be exempt from a coastal development permit. It takes two permits, but it is a big workaround, but you're going to alleviate a lot of risk.
So if you have the time and money to do that, generally that is my preference, although I don't like having to go through more permitting because anytime you go through more permitting, you open yourself up for more,just more issues. It's not ideal, but anything in the coastal zone is a complicated project.
Even the small projects become inherently large projects.
41:28BaileyGot it. Well, I think that's a good place to leave it. This was a very technical conversation, but I think there was a lot of value in it for. Anyone considering any sort of housing project in San Diego? I suppose to wrap up, what would you advise people here if they're in the planning stages of their project, based on this conversation, what exactly should they be thinking about?
What are the key thresholds they wanna have on the radar from the start? Just, you know, final thoughts here on this conversation.
41:56Sean CanningFind the document first. Read through the document. If you're planning a project And you're in one of those smaller categories, keep the project there. you find yourself in one of these larger categories, looking to do an R two project or a large R three project, if you have utility upgrades. Or if you're in the coastal zone, then you probably need a professional. And, if that's the situation you find yourself in, then reach out to me and we can do a virtual consultation and see what kind of constraints your project's gonna have, and I can give you good advice and see how to proceed.
42:28BaileyAnd on that note, explain the different ways people can get in touch with you and your studio, because whether they're looking just for a couple hours of help, maybe on a small project, maybe they need permitting help, or maybe they're considering a full on. beautiful, modern, custom home that's obviously gonna require a professional architecture studio.
What are some of the different ways you can help prospective clients with their projects?
42:49Sean CanningSo visit the website, 10 70 architecture.com. There's a whole bunch of good information there. You can send me an emo email info at 1 0 7 0 architecture.com. you can also check out the Instagram, which is 1 0 7 0 architecture. and in the information section of this video, we'll have a whole bunch of links so you can find all this stuff.
43:07BaileyDefinitely. So hope everyone liked the video, subscribe and if anyone has any questions, drop a comment. Sean usually does a pretty good job of responding back, so thanks for watching. We'll see you in the next one.
43:19Sean CanningThanks, Billy.
