Permits & licenses in Sacramento.

Inside the Sacramento city line the building permit, the plan review and the inspection belong to the city. California writes one code for the whole state — Title 24, the California Building Standards Code, republished by the Building Standards Commission every three years — and state law hands its enforcement to local government: the city's department inside the line, the county's on the unincorporated land outside it. Hospitals answer to HCAI and public schools to the Division of the State Architect, not to either building counter.

• The Building Division, within the Community Development Department, carries construction regulation, plan review, building inspection and code compliance; almost all permits file through the city's Public Permit Portal, and every plan-review submittal and resubmittal runs through Electronic Plan Check (EPC).
• Most building permits need Planning clearance before Building takes them, and some need a Planning entitlement first; work in the public right-of-way adds an encroachment permit through Public Works' Development Engineering.
• The Sacramento Fire Department's Fire Prevention Division, through its Development Services unit, plan-reviews and inspects every new, repaired or replaced fire protection system that requires a building permit, along with fire department access and water supply.
• Unincorporated Sacramento County permits through the County's Building Permits and Inspection Division, which issues permits and provides plan review and field inspection for private development within unincorporated Sacramento County.