Not a moment too soon

The following shows a timeline of the San Francisco permit process for adding 12' to the back of our house.  You need two things to build in San Francisco: 1) a site permit, reviewed by the Planning Department, who regulates zoning laws and considers neighbor input, and 2) a building permit, issued by the Department of Building Inspection, who makes sure that all construction follows city building codes.

In many Bay Area cities this process might take a few weeks (our good friends in Palo Alto have a similar project under construction, and theirs took a month).

Here in good ol' San Francisco, it took 7-1/2 months!

Luckily, our house is not historic and our neighbors gave little input - other friends in the city have had their process take over a year!

February 1, 2011:  Letter sent to all adjacent neighbors
February 15, 2011:  Preapplication meeting with neighbors (inviting them to review our plans and let us know any concerns they had)
February 18, 2011:  Submitted plans to SF Planning Department
[5-1/2 months go by...]
August 2, 2011:  SF Planning Department Approval
August 2-22, 2011:  SFDBI (Department of Building Inspection) Reviews Plans
August 19, 2011:  Site Permit Approved
August 22, 2011:  Site Permit Issued by SFDBI
August 24, 2011:  Addendum Submitted to SFDBI (addendum contains design details - structural, etc.)
August 24 - September 16, 2011 - Addendum Reviewed by both SFDBI and SF Planning Dept
September 15, 2011:  Contractor starts demo
September 15, 2011:  Building Permit Approved
September 16, 2011:  Building Permit Issued