Permits & licenses in Santa Cruz County.
Outside every city line in Santa Cruz 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 Permits & Safety sits in the Unified Permit Center of the County of Santa Cruz Community Development & Infrastructure department, which issues building permits for the unincorporated county.
- Building permit applications and plans run through the county's Camino online permitting system as ePlan submittals.
Talk to a permit specialist — for your Santa Cruz County project.
county seat: Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz 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 Cruz 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 Cruz County?
County of Santa Cruz Community Development & Infrastructure — Unified Permit Center — with the trade, health, and fire reviews that attach depending on the project.
Does DaKa work in Santa Cruz County?
Yes — Santa Cruz 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.