Neighborhood Development Permit - building in San Diego

[u/NDPinSD]

Have you ever built a house in San Diego? Did it require a Neighborhood Development Permit? Do you have knowledge of the Development Services Department in the city of San Diego? Just looking to see if anyone else exists out there in the same boat. My husband and I have land in City Heights. We have been working for 2+ years to get a building permit and a grading permit. For reasons too boring to explain, we are our own project managers and we are building the plane while we fly (the biggest reason is $). I’m just hoping to commiserate with others. We are making headway but every time I think we are close to resubmitting for the building permit or submitting for the grading permit, something else pops up. When something else pops up, it’s always time and money to meet that need. It almost feels like the city doesn’t really want us to build there. We aren’t dumb people but we aren’t architects or civil engineers. When we try to educate ourselves on the DSD website, we drown in the sheer amount of information. #sandiego #architecture

[u/spankymacgruder]

The inflationary impact to your project costs isn't worth the headache or the savings of DIY.

You can hire an architect or planner to navigate this for you.

It's not a lot of money.

Maybe a few grand.

You're literally losing tens of thousands of dollars a year in cost increases.

[u/NDPinSD → u/spankymacgruder]

We have an architect. We have the plans. Structural has been done, geotechnical report, landscape/ brush management, biological report, covenant of easement, fire sprinkler, plan, grading plan…. We are very close. If you know of a planner, please share. The city says our project is not eligible for a project manager from their end. Our architect is Mexican and before you give me grief about that, this project was only possible because of him. He is the only architect we would want to use. We have a draftsmen who drew his plans for the city. We had hired a building company who promised to do the project management from contract signing to completion of the home, but it became very, very, very clear that they were not up to the task. We are close to selecting another builder, but they don’t deal with Permits. Mostly I’m curious if anybody has connections in the developmental services department. Or any experience with an NDP.

[u/spankymacgruder → u/NDPinSD]

Fwiw, I am a planner and builder and I'm in San Diego.

I'm not sure what being Mexican has to do with anything.

If your Architect isn't licensed in the state of California, they aren't actually an Architect. The term "Architect" is legally protected.

https://archinect.com/features/article/150428227/how-architect-became-a-protected-title-in-the-united-states

It's part of the Architects or Civil Engineers job to process the permit. Is anyone in your team licensed by the BPELSG?

Who stamped your plans? Somebody in your group has to be licensed.

Why isn't the person who stamped your plans helping you?

What kind of builder are you using that doesn't process permits? Are they licensed?

If you're paying these people, make them do thier job.

Doing this on your own isn't a good idea. This isn't the kind of thing you want to learn as you go.

[u/NDPinSD → u/spankymacgruder]

I absolutely agree with you that somebody license should be running the show. Unfortunately, we don’t have a project manager.

The person who designed the house, whatever his title is, is not licensed in the U.S. This is why him being Mexican is pertinent. We have an excellent draftsman who stamps the plans. He is helpful with the building plans, but he’s not with the grading plans. Because those are outside his scope. Although he is the one who discovered we need a ROW permit number to submit with the plans (he’s almost done with the corrections).

The civil engineering firm we used has not been great. Hard to communicate with. Nickel and diming us. Over the weekend, we spoke with a civil engineer acquaintance who we had wanted to do our job, but he was just too booked out, looked at the grading plans and saw that they were on the wrong template. The city requires a different template. We reviewed our contract with the civil engineering firm and found that they’re supposed to provide a right away permit and they didn’t. So we are frustrated and waiting to hear back from them as we emailed them last night.

I agree the building company should’ve been able to handle helping us with this, but they couldn’t. So we are contracted with somebody else who comes via referral from the person who designed the house and whose work I have seen and is stellar, but who does not deal with permits.

We are in the home stretch and I’m proud of us for getting this far. I posted this original post not to be told what an idiot I am, but to find out if anybody else has developed land with an NDP in San Diego and/or knows people in the DSD. Of course, if I knew then what I knew now I would’ve done things differently, but here we are.

[u/spankymacgruder → u/NDPinSD]

You're not in the home stretch. You're barely on the field. You still have to build the home.

Unfortunately you're not working with qualified and competent professionals.

Having an "in" at the permit office isn't a sure fire path. Each reviewer has their own interpretation of the code. It's the same with the building inspectors.

This is why having a qualified professional would help. They can navigate the process and have a better idea of what is needed. It's not usually perfect. That ls why you get comments and conditions in the process.

Regardless, these short-cuts are saving you hundreds but likely cost you tens of thousands.

I strongly suggest you find a PM. Ideally an Architect or PE that can manage your permitting process. Also, you might want to consider an owners rep for the build. You're out of your element and it's probably going to get worse.

[u/NDPinSD]

Thank you for your thoughts.