People looking to build certain kinds of housing in Oakland just caught a break — the city is implementing a streamlined permitting process for single-family homes and projects featuring up to 30 units, city officials recently announced.
To get such projects built faster, and perhaps cheaper, the city has implemented a so-called “ministerial” design review process, whereby projects automatically move forward if they meet certain objective design standards.
“We have been cutting approval times and streamlining the process by moving categories of housing applications, such as 100% affordable or mixed-income housing, to ‘ministerial review,’ which do not need public hearings nor are subject to appeal,” said Bill Gilchrist, director of Oakland’s Planning & Building Department.
“Moreover, these projects will not require California Environmental Quality Act approval, thereby accelerating their review,” Gilchrist in a news release Tuesday.
In addition to the streamlined permit process, the city in 2023 “essentially eliminated” single-family zoning, which allows homeowners to build additional units on their properties that can be rented or sold depending on the lot size, according to city officials.
Follows objective standards
The new “ministerial” approvals apply to market-rate single-family homes and multifamily projects with up to 30 units.
Such projects will be reviewed using objective, rather than subjective, design standards.
An example of an objective standard is requiring front setbacks to be at least 4 feet. A subjective standard would say something like the setback “should match the character of the neighborhood,” according to the city’s website.
Objective standards are supposed to make the process more “efficient, predictable, and fair,” according to city officials.
The city had already adopted three objective design standards for projects with one to four units, projects with one- to three-story multifamily designs, and projects with four- to eight-story multifamily designs.
More details about the new permit process can be found on the city’s website, as well as information about how to apply using the new process.
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