Permits & licenses in Santa Barbara County.
Outside every city line in Santa Barbara County, the building permit, the plan review and the inspection belong to the county. 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 county's department on the unincorporated land, each city's department inside its own line. Hospitals answer to HCAI and public schools to the Division of the State Architect, not to either building counter.
- Building & Safety, a division of Santa Barbara County Planning & Development, issues building permits for the unincorporated county; building permit applications run through the county's Citizen Access Portal.
- Projects subject to design review go to the county's Board of Architectural Review alongside the building permit.
Talk to a permit specialist — for your Santa Barbara County project.
county seat: Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara County · drawn from Census boundaries
What we clear here
- Building permits — new construction, fit-outs, renovations
- Trade permits — electrical, plumbing, gas, mechanical
- Use & occupancy and the inspections behind it
- Business & contractor licensing
- Signs, site work, and right-of-way
How it moves
Your package is reviewed against the current Santa Barbara County submission requirements before it's filed — forms, editions, scales, signatures. Then it's tracked in the queue and carried through comments. A resubmittal means the back of the line; the pre-filing review is there to help keep you out of it. The habit comes from volume: the team has processed 400+ permits annually across Maryland, D.C., and Virginia counters.
Straight answers
Who issues building permits in Santa Barbara County?
Santa Barbara County Planning & Development — Building & Safety — with the trade, health, and fire reviews that attach depending on the project.
Does DaKa work in Santa Barbara County?
Yes — Santa Barbara County is one of the California markets we serve. Call (240) 344-5075, or send the project over, and we'll lay out your project's permits and licenses, in order, with what each review will take.
Talk to a permit specialist
Ten minutes on your project. You leave knowing the approvals it needs, in what order, and what each review will take. Or send the address, scope, and plans and we start from there.