Service areas

All of San Diego County, and each part of it is a different job.

A Del Mar project and a Clairemont project are not the same work with a different address. Different departments issue the permit, the lots behave differently, and the housing stock decides what is even worth building.

These pages exist because that difference is the useful part. The six below are the places we have written it down. They are not the edge of the map. We work across all of San Diego County, coast to inland, north county to the south bay. If your city is not listed, we still serve it. Call and ask.

The coast, north to south

Find your area.

Hover or tab through the pins. Each one changes the panel beside it: what the housing stock is like, and which department issues the permit.

Diagram, not to scale. Ordered north to south, with inland areas set back from the coast.

Coastal zone

Carlsbad

Coastal North County

Newer inland neighborhoods carry HOA design review on top of city permitting, which is an extra step worth identifying early. The village and older coastal blocks have the smaller, older homes where kitchen and whole-home remodels tend to pay off most.

PermitsCity of Carlsbad Community Development

Carlsbad projects

Coastal North County

Coastal North County.

Coastal zone

Del Mar

Del Mar is its own incorporated city with its own planning department, and it is one of the smaller and more design-conscious jurisdictions in the county. Essentially the whole city is coastal, and review tends to pay close attention to bulk, height, and how a project reads from the street and from neighboring properties.

PermitsCity of Del Mar Planning and Community Development

Coastal zone

Encinitas

Encinitas is its own city, covering Leucadia, Old Encinitas, Cardiff, New Encinitas, and Olivenhain: five communities with genuinely different lot patterns. Permits go through Encinitas Development Services, and parcels west of the rail corridor commonly sit in the coastal zone.

PermitsCity of Encinitas Development Services

Coastal zone

Carlsbad

Carlsbad handles its own permitting through Community Development. The city is large and varied. The older village near the coast has little in common with the newer master-planned tracts inland, and that difference shows up in both what is buildable and what a remodel is worth.

PermitsCity of Carlsbad Community Development

Coastal San Diego

Coastal San Diego.

Coastal zone

La Jolla

La Jolla is part of the City of San Diego, so permits run through City Development Services rather than a city hall of its own. Much of the village and the blocks above the shoreline fall inside the coastal overlay, which can add a coastal development permit and review time to a project that would be routine a few miles inland.

PermitsCity of San Diego Development Services Department

Coastal zone

Point Loma

Point Loma is a City of San Diego community, so permits run through City Development Services. The peninsula covers a mix of communities, from Roseville and La Playa to Loma Portal, with Ocean Beach next door, and a good deal of it sits in the coastal overlay.

PermitsCity of San Diego Development Services Department

Central San Diego

Central San Diego.

Bay Park & Clairemont

Bay Park and Clairemont are City of San Diego neighborhoods, and they are home for us. Dane lives in Bay Park. Most of the area sits outside the coastal overlay, which usually means a shorter permitting path than the same project would face closer to the water.

PermitsCity of San Diego Development Services Department

Everywhere else

And all of San Diego County besides.

The pages above are the places where the local difference is worth a page of its own. The service area is the whole county.

That includes Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos, Escondido, Poway, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Santa Fe, Solana Beach, Cardiff, Pacific Beach, Mission Hills, North Park, Kensington, Coronado, Chula Vista, La Mesa, El Cajon, Santee, Lakeside, and Bonita, along with everywhere in between. If you are inside San Diego County, we will come and look at it.

A standing note on permits

What applies to your project depends on the parcel, not the city. Zoning, overlays, setbacks, and what is already built on the lot all move the answer. Everything on these pages describes how a jurisdiction generally works. Before any drawings get made, we confirm what actually applies to your address.

If your city is not listed

We still serve it. The pages exist for the places where the local difference is worth writing down.

Orange County is deliberately left off until it is real.

Send us the address

Not sure if we cover you?

We work across San Diego County. Send the address and we will tell you straight away.

Consult with Dane Call (619) 304-3242