Get a planning range for what a Bay Area building department is likely to charge in permit and plan check fees on a residential project. Ranges only, drawn from typical published fee schedules — your city's current schedule governs.
Nothing here is a quote, a bid, an engineering determination or a boundary determination. We are a drafting and design firm: we coordinate with a licensed structural engineer and a Licensed Land Surveyor when your project needs one, rather than performing or stamping that work ourselves.
A residential permit fee in the Bay Area is a stack of separate charges, not a single number. The building permit fee is the base, and it is usually derived from a published valuation table rather than from a contractor bid. Plan check is then billed as a percentage of that base, commonly somewhere between half and three quarters of it. On top of both sit technology and records surcharges, energy review, and — for anything that changes the building envelope or the site — a planning or zoning review.
The city multiplier in this tool reflects real differences between published schedules. The small peninsula and hillside jurisdictions we serve, places like Atherton, Woodside and Los Altos Hills, carry heavy design review and sit well above San Jose. Mid-peninsula cities such as San Mateo, Redwood City and San Carlos sit modestly above it, high-volume South Bay departments sit around the middle, and outlying south county jurisdictions like Morgan Hill, Gilroy and Hollister sit below. That spread is genuine, and it is also the fastest-ageing part of this estimate, because schedules are revised annually and adopted by ordinance.
School district fees are deliberately left out. They are levied per square foot of new conditioned area by the school district rather than the city, and rates vary widely across district boundaries that do not follow city lines. On an addition or an ADU of any size they can be a meaningful line item, so confirm the current rate with the district that serves your address before you close a budget.
Valuation is the most common jump. If a stated valuation sits well below the city's table for that use and square footage, the department will typically substitute its own figure, and every percentage-based fee moves up with it. Writing an unrealistically low valuation does not save money; it usually just stalls the intake.
Unpermitted work is the second. Most Bay Area jurisdictions apply an investigation fee when something was built without a permit, frequently equal to the permit fee itself, which is why legalization commonly lands at one and a half to two times a normal permit. Some cities simply double the fee outright. That charge covers department time spent investigating, and it is generally not waived because a previous owner did the work. The paperwork route back to compliance is covered on our code violation, red tag and restoration page.
Resubmittal is the third. Plan check fees usually cover a set number of review cycles, and sets that come back repeatedly incomplete can trigger additional review charges — which is the practical argument for submitting a properly assembled permit set rather than the minimum a counter will accept. We prepare drawings and compliance documents. We do not collect or control city fees, and no drafting firm can promise a plan check outcome or that a city will accept a submittal.
Not necessarily. Most Bay Area cities calculate permit fees from their own valuation table, based on occupancy type and square footage, and will substitute that figure if a stated valuation looks low. Use a realistic construction cost when estimating. Understating it does not reduce the fee and usually just slows intake.
Because school districts set them, not cities, and they are charged per square foot of new conditioned area. District boundaries do not match city boundaries and rates change on their own schedule. Including a guess would make the total look more precise than it is. Contact the district that serves your address for the current rate.
Most jurisdictions add an investigation fee when work was built without a permit, often equal to the permit fee itself, and some double the fee outright. The charge covers department time spent investigating what was built. It usually applies regardless of who did the work, including a previous owner, so confirm the current policy with your city before budgeting.
It is a planning range, never a quote or a bid. It uses typical Bay Area percentage bands and a per-city adjustment, but every city publishes its own annually updated fee schedule and many bill from a valuation table with its own brackets. The city's current adopted schedule governs. Treat this output as a budgeting starting point and confirm the real number at your building department counter.
Choose "Other / not listed", which applies a mid-range multiplier so the output stays a reasonable regional planning figure. The listed cities are the ones we work in most often and whose schedules we watch. For anywhere else, treat the result as a wider range and confirm with that jurisdiction directly.
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