Almaden Resident

Letters & Opinions

San Jose's building permit process a pleasant surprise

When I moved to San Jose at the end of 2005, I was already familiar with the horror stories of involving city hall in residential remodeling projects: The fees were too high, the staff too slow, and the building department was out to get homeowners not willing to jump through bureaucratic hoops.

True or not, those stories discouraged me so much that I actually tucked my blueprints behind some boxes in the kitchen pantry and postponed adding a master bathroom and doing some kitchen remodeling for more than a year. The tape I used to mark the spot where I planned to add a kitchen island has permanently adhered to the vinyl floor since I first stuck it there last summer.

Finally, the day came last month that I could no longer stand sharing a bathroom with my husband, 14-year-old nephew and parents who have become frequent visitors at my house. Facing the building department seemed more bearable than coordinating bathroom times with my family, so I made the dreaded appointment with the city fully expecting long delays and having to redraw my plans. The city issues about 33,000 building permits annually. With that volume, I just assumed the process would be long and impersonal.

None of that happened. I walked in and out of city hall in less than three hours with permits and some good advice and in a good mood.

Since my home is single-story and my remodeling plans were less than 500 square feet, I qualified for the city's Residential Express Plan Check-- a program created to streamline the permit process into an hourlong, one-on-one meeting with a planner from the Department of Planning, Building & Code Enforcement.

I was fortunate to have Jim Adducci conduct my plan check. Laid back and soft-spoken, he immediately put me at ease. He explained the process and my plans in terms that I could easily understand and went out of his way to make sure I left with permits that day.

Throughout the process, from Adducci to the cashier, the staff was pleasant and helpful--nothing described in those horror stories.

I can only hope that securing a contractor and passing inspections will be as easy.