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Plan Review
Field Inspection
Special Programs
Permit Center
Supervisor Chart
Support Staff
The mission of the Building Division is to oversee private construction for the purpose of protecting the safety of San Jose's citizens and facilitating the City's economic development objectives. This is accomplished through implementation of Building, Plumbing, Mechanical, Electrical, zoning, Engineering, Energy and disabled Access codes and laws for construction of residential, commercial and industrial developments.
The Building Division processes over $1 billion worth of construction projects each year. The Division issues permits for more than 30,000 projects (one permit every five minutes), conducts over 190,000 inspections (one inspection every 45 seconds), and responds to over 300,000 phone inquiries (one phone customer every 25 seconds) each year.
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Project approval begins with the review of all construction plans for residential, commercial, and industrial buildings and structures. The applicant submits a complete set of Building, Plumbing, Mechanical and Electrical plans, specifications, and supporting documentation. The Building Division analyzes the plans to verify that the proposed construction is designed to meet the minimum safety requirements specified in the codes. The Building Division staff must also verify that projects have obtained the necessary Planning, Public Works or Fire Department clearances.
Each year, the Building Division provides plan review services for approximately 5,000 projects. The Division recognizes the need to expedite project review services, and has developed several separate review and approval tracks depending upon the scope, complexity, and urgency of construction. These include:
- Express Plan Check: This process is reserved for less complex residential and commercial/industrial projects. Customers make an appointment for their plans to be reviewed. The review process takes approximately one hour.
- Consultant Plan Review: In order to facilitate a reasonable plan check turn-around time with our large workload particularly during peak activity periods, a large number of projects are sent out to consultant plan checkers. The plan check consultants are hired by and paid for by the City and work directly for the Building Division to supplement the workload that can be handled by the City Plan Check staff.
- Third-Party Plan Review: In order to facilitate projects which require faster than normal plan check turn-around times, the Building Division allows the applicant to use the services of a third-party plan checker. In these cases the applicant hires and pays for a third-party plan checker from a pre-approved list. This allows the applicants to arrange for plan check services which meets their particular time demands. Although this service does not substitute for the city plan checker, it facilitates substantially faster plan approval and start of construction.
The Building Plan Review process results in the preparation of a set of plan check comments with required corrections. After all corrections are made, the plans are approved for permit issuance.
The Building Permit Center assists citizens and issues Building, Plumbing, Mechanical, Electrical and minor planning adjustment permits when applicants have obtained the appropriate plan approval. The Building Division also coordinates and ensures that applicants have obtained the necessary clearances from Planning, Public Works, Fire and outside agencies (e.g., school districts, Health Department, etc.). The permit authorizes the customer to begin construction and request inspection services required to obtain a final inspection and/or a Certificate of Occupancy.
Each year the Building Permit Center serves over 40,000 walk-in customers, and issues over 30,000 permits. Building Division customers comment that the quality of service is much improved since the Permit Center redesign, despite the record number of permits issued and customers served. The Permit Center accepts major credit cards for the payment of Building Division permits and services.
The Building Division is in the process of developing an automated system for processing permit applications. The "Integrated Development Tracking System" (IDTS) will improve the response to information inquiries by citizens as well as expedite plan review and permit issuance.
The Building Division provides inspection services within a 24-hour response time for 95% of its customers. Inspections are requested by telephone and taken by the Division’s Phone and Records Section staff. Approximately 300,000 phone calls for inspections and other services are handled by the Division each year.
The Building Division completes approximately 190,000 inspections each year, as each one of the 30,000 permits issued requires an average of six (6) inspections. At the end of each business day, approximately 500 inspection requests are forwarded to the Building Inspection Section for scheduling the next day. Inspections are distributed to inspectors, who are assigned to 25 different areas within the City.
In order to provide better customer service, the Building Division created and implemented a combination inspection program in 1993. This program provides building, plumbing, mechanical, and electrical inspections by one inspector for residential buildings.
Building Division field inspectors and supervisors are equipped with cellular phones. This provides direct communication among staff and customers. Our field inspectors can contact supervisors or access voice mail messages where other telephone facilities are not available. This communication link allows improved communication capability during a state of emergency or disaster.
After various stages of construction have been inspected and approved, the Building Division approves the final inspection and issues a Certificate of Occupancy. This certifies that the building meets all the appropriate codes, structural, zoning, health, safety, and access regulations and is safe to inhabit or occupy.
The Building Division is required to retain all copies of permits and final building plans issued by the Division. copies of permit documents are furnished to customers upon request. Approximately 5,000 requests for records are processed each year by the Records Section Staff. This task has been expedited by the Department's Document Imaging Records Management System. This system allows the Building Division to store digital pictures of all approved building plans and permits for immediate retrieval via computer.
The Building Division oversees the construction work of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings whose owners have chosen to retrofit their buildings. The program was established to ensure the retrofit of buildings which are susceptible to seismic activity. The Building Division provides extensive plan check and inspection services to ensure that the structures in this program are strengthened.
Since 1992, several major improvements in the Building Division have been made to improve the services to San Jose development review customers and enhance economic development. The following is a summary of some of these achievements:
- Reorganized the Building Division to be responsive to customer's needs.
- Created a Building Division one-stop permit center.
- Merged Building, Plumbing, Mechanical, and Electrical plan check functions to allow concurrent review of all trades.
- Merged Building, Plumbing, Mechanical, and Electrical field inspection functions to provide greater flexibility and efficiency in inspection scheduling.
- Created combination inspection program to streamline and increase efficiency of residential tract and remodel inspection services.
- Created express plan check process for certain residential, commercial and industrial projects, substantially increasing same-day, over-the-counter project approval.
- Achieved approximately 50% reduction in turnaround time for all plan check services.
- Reduced inspection request lead-time from 3 to 4 days to a maximum of 24 hours for 95% of inspection requests.
- Eliminated requirement for most plumbing, mechanical, and electrical plan checks.
- Eliminated requirement for common interest development (CID) inspections.
- Instituted an appointment system for all Building Division permit services.
- Expanded the one-stop permit center concept by consolidating the Fire Department plan check staff, and some Planning staff in the Building Division.
- Instituted noon-hour (12-1) phone and permit center services.
- Instituted Automated Telephone Call Management System.
- Instituted payment of permits and services by credit card.
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