Unincorporated Santa Barbara County

County Building & Safety permitting applies to construction, alteration, repair, demolition, and similar regulated building work in unincorporated county areas. Separate planning or zoning review may also be required depending on location, use, coastal status, grading, or other land-use constraints.

• Exempt One-story detached accessory structures used as tool and storage sheds, playhouses, and similar uses within the stated code size and condition limits
• Exempt Fences not over 6 feet high
• Exempt Retaining walls not over 4 feet measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, subject to the stated exceptions
• Exempt Sidewalks and driveways not more than 30 inches above grade and not over a basement or story below
• Exempt Painting, papering, tiling, carpeting, cabinets, countertops, and similar finish work
• Exempt Certain prefabricated swimming pools accessory to Group R-3 occupancies
• Exempt Certain window awnings on qualifying occupancies

Note: Exemption from a building permit does not authorize work that violates zoning, grading, coastal, flood, fire, septic, or other county requirements. Project-specific thresholds and exceptions still matter.

Building code

County permit materials track California Building Code and California Residential Code Section 105.2 style permit exemptions and route applicants through current California building-code-family compliance and County ordinance requirements.

Permit validity

The County publishes a Permit Extension Request form, but the reviewed public-facing pages did not clearly publish one baseline expiration period for all permit classes. Confirm the issued permit's expiration terms directly with County staff.

Owner-builder

The permit application includes an Owner-Builder declaration and a separate Owner-Builder Acknowledgement and Information form. A property-owner signature verification document is required when the permit is issued.

Contractor requirements

The application requires either a California licensed contractor declaration or a valid owner-builder exemption statement, plus contractor name, license class, license number, and workers' compensation information or a qualifying exemption.

Source: Santa Barbara County Planning & Development, Building & Safety Division ↗

1. 01
   Confirm the correct permit path from the County permitting pages and pull the right packet or checklist from the Planning and Building Permit Applications & Forms page.
2. 02
   Prepare the permit application, plans, and supporting materials required by the County's plan-submittal requirements and any case-specific checklist.
3. 03
   Submit the application through Accela Citizen Access and upload all required documents.
4. 04
   Pay the required permit and plan check fees.
5. 05
   Respond to County correction comments if plan check identifies deficiencies.
6. 06
   Resubmit revised plans and documents until plan check is cleared.
7. 07
   Obtain permit issuance after approvals and fee clearance, then schedule and pass the required inspections.

Typical processing time: The County does not publish one general processing-time commitment for all permit types. A County rebuilding guide says first building plan review for single-family dwellings is about two weeks and accessory structures are about 30 days in that program, but that is not presented as a universal countywide timeline.

Source: Santa Barbara County Planning & Development, Building & Safety Division ↗

Use County permit and payment workflows through Accela and confirm the live fee schedule immediately before submittal.

Fees change periodically. Confirm at the official fee schedule ↗ before budgeting.

• Accela Citizen Access (online)
• (805) 568-2000 / (805) 934-6250 (phone)

Typical sequence: Typical sequence is permit issuance, required phase inspections tied to the approved plans and permit conditions, correction notice or reinspection if work is not ready or does not pass, and final inspection with permit closeout.

Source: Santa Barbara County Planning & Development, Building & Safety Division ↗