Contractors wrestle with lengthy permit process amid housing crisis
Despite calls to build more homes to solve the Bay Area's housing woes, the rate of building permits for new homes has slowed considerably, worsening the crisis.
Work comes to a grinding halt for designer and contractor Tim Pond when building permits aren't issued in a timely manner.
"It becomes difficult to even get an inspection scheduled sometimes," said Pond. "It's not impossible, but it takes time."
Housing experts say building and planning departments still face staffing shortages, leading to a backlog of permits being processed, and longer waits for on-site inspections.
"I don't see any problem once you get to building inspection, but the permit process itself is laboring. It's difficult," said Pond.
"If you don't have enough inspectors, then it might take you a month just to get an appointment for your inspector to come," said Kelly Snider, a professor of urban and regional planning at San Jose State University.
The need to build more housing in the Bay Area and across California faces numerous hurdles as economists and housing experts say interest rates and costs remain relatively high.
Building permit data shows a major slowdown for some local counties.
More than 10,000 permits would have to be issued every year for San Francisco to meet the state requirement to build 82,000 homes between 2023 and 2031.
"Residential building permits are down a lot," said Snider.
A closer look at the data shows a total of 2,044 housing unit building permits were issued in San Francisco County in 2022. Last year, it dropped by roughly half, to 1,136. This year through January, only 6.
"The reason why the permits are down is because these institutional multi-family projects are not pulling permits," said Snider.
Permit totals can jump by hundreds in one month if a major developer pulls the trigger, said Snider. But the high cost of labor, materials, and interest rates are making institutional investors stay on the sidelines.
"That makes these bigger 100-, 500-unit projects infeasible financially," said Snider.
There may be a way to cut into wait times for both smaller and larger projects. Snider believes using the limited number of building and permitting staff on institutional projects, rather than small construction like Pond's single-family home, would streamline the process for all parties.
"Put those on these big transit-oriented projects that are going to move the needle a little bit with hundreds of units at a time," said Snider.
Every day of delay is money lost for builders like Pond.
"It's largely because there's all these boxes to check and if one of them doesn't get done, the plan sits there. It's the kind of thing if you're in traffic it's the slowest car that determines the speed of the traffic," said Pond.
It's a waiting game Pond, builders, and residents can't afford amid a housing crisis.
U.S. Housing and Urban Development data shows permits were down year-over-year in 2023 in other Bay Area counties, including Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Santa Clara and San Mateo.