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PermitBase

Building Permit in Pasadena, California

Pasadena runs a one-stop Permit Center at City Hall and is, in this corpus, the disaster-recovery city: alongside ordinary permitting it publishes a numbered series of rebuild bulletins for the 2025 windstorm and wildfire, and an optional election to the previous code cycle for Eaton Fire rebuilds.

Verified 2026-09-19 · Source

When you need this permit

  • BRING YOUR CITY BUSINESS LICENCE OR YOU DO NOT PULL THE PERMIT: "A City of Pasadena Business License must be presented at arrival for all contractors and agent to contractors pulling permits." A licence is obtained from a different counter - "email businesslicense@cityofpasadena.net or visit 100 N. Garfield Ave, Suite N106, Pasadena CA".
  • The Permit Center is described as "a One-Stop-Shop where staff from multiple departments provide all development review and permitting services for customers", and it handles more than construction - the city notes it also processes permits "to film in Pasadena, hold a garage sale, or erect a tent for your garden wedding".
  • Inspections, plan review status, property research and permit search all run through the city's Permit Center Online application.

Required documents

Check off what you have — your progress is saved on this device.

Fee schedule

Building permit fee
This is the clearest fee-basis statement in this corpus and it is the city's own: "Building Permit fees are valuation-based utilizing the most current issue of the 'Building Valuation Data' (BVD)… Show full citationThis is the clearest fee-basis statement in this corpus and it is the city's own: "Building Permit fees are valuation-based utilizing the most current issue of the 'Building Valuation Data' (BVD) table published by the International Code Council (ICC)." Note how the valuation itself is computed - the city explains the BVD table determines an estimated value of a building "(e.g., Gross Area x Square Foot Construction Cost)", so the valuation is itself derived from floor area.
Valuation-based, using the International Code Council Building Valuation Data table.
Where the amounts are
"Refer to fees 221-363 in the General Fee Schedule for Building Permit fees. Show full citation"Refer to fees 221-363 in the General Fee Schedule for Building Permit fees. All fees are subject to periodic adjustments." That is 143 numbered building permit fee lines, held in the city-wide finance schedule rather than on a building-specific page. A separate FY 2026 Planning Fees schedule covers planning applications.
Fees numbered 221 to 363 of the General Fee Schedule.
What the city says the valuation is forThe city is explicit that the BVD figure "is only intended to assist us in determining their permit fees so that we can uniformly recover the cost of our services" - so the valuation is a fee-setting instrument and not a statement of what the building is worth.
Cost recovery, not an appraisal.
2025 Disaster fee reliefBulletin 21 records that "The City of Pasadena has launched a Fee Waiver and Refund Program for eligible properties." Eligibility criteria and amounts were not opened for this record.
A fee waiver and refund programme exists for eligible properties.

Review timeline

Plan review
Not published — contact the department

How long did your Building Permit permit actually take in Pasadena?

Anonymous — one question, no email. Answers are combined and only shown once at least 5 people have reported.

Inspection process

  1. 1

    Schedule the inspection online

    The Building & Safety Division publishes a "Schedule Inspection" application and a "Plan Review Status" application under Permit Center Online, alongside Research Property and Search For A Permit. No telephone booking route, advance-notice requirement or daily cut-off was published on the pages read for this record.

  2. 2

    Next-day inspections exist, but as a disaster-recovery measure

    Bulletin 4 of the 2025 Disaster series is titled "Next Day Inspections for New Residential Units". This record does not claim next-day inspection is generally available - it is published within the windstorm and wildfire recovery series, and the bulletin itself was not opened.

  3. 3

    NOT PUBLISHED: the inspection stage sequence

    No ordered list of inspection stages appears on the pages read for this record, and none is asserted here.

See the full Pasadena inspection guide — scheduling & re-inspection fees →

Tips

  • A CONTRACTOR WITHOUT A CITY BUSINESS LICENCE IS TURNED AWAY AT THE COUNTER - it must be presented at arrival.
  • THE ALTERNATING FRIDAY IS RESOLVED BY A PUBLISHED CALENDAR - check it rather than guessing.
  • THE COUNTER SHUTS AT 3:00 p.m., which is early for this corpus, and opens at 8:30 a.m.

Frequently asked questions

Pasadena requires a building permit for: BRING YOUR CITY BUSINESS LICENCE OR YOU DO NOT PULL THE PERMIT: "A City of Pasadena Business License must be presented at arrival for all contractors and agent to contractors pulling permits." A licence is obtained from a different counter - "email businesslicense@cityofpasadena.net or visit 100 N. Garfield Ave, Suite N106, Pasadena CA".; The Permit Center is described as "a One-Stop-Shop where staff from multiple departments provide all development review and permitting services for customers", and it handles more than construction - the city notes it also processes permits "to film in Pasadena, hold a garage sale, or erect a tent for your garden wedding".; Inspections, plan review status, property research and permit search all run through the city's Permit Center Online application.. If your project isn't listed, confirm with City of Pasadena Planning & Community Development Department, Building & Safety Division (Permit Center) at (626) 744-4200 before starting work.

From valuation, against the ICC table: "Building Permit fees are valuation-based utilizing the most current issue of the 'Building Valuation Data' (BVD) table published by the International Code Council (ICC)." The valuation itself is derived from floor area - the city gives the form as Gross Area x Square Foot Construction Cost. The amounts are fees 221-363 of the General Fee Schedule.

The city publishes live Counter Wait Times on its Permit Center page, which is rare in this corpus. No figure is recorded here because it is a live value rather than a published standard.

Depending on your project, Pasadena may also ask for: ; ; . See the required-documents checklist on this page for details on each.

Apply through City of Pasadena Planning & Community Development Department, Building & Safety Division (Permit Center) at Pasadena City Hall, 100 North Garfield Ave., Pasadena, CA 91101. THE PERMIT CENTER'S OWN SUITE IS NOT STATED on the pages read for this record - the only suite published is Suite N106, which is the business licence counter. The City Hall address above is the one the city publishes in its own site footer.. Phone: (626) 744-4200, email: permit_center_manager@cityofpasadena.net. Office hours: "Monday - Thursday & alternate Fridays from 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.", "Closed alternate Fridays, Weekends and Holidays". AND UNLIKE EVERY OTHER ALTERNATING-FRIDAY CITY IN THIS CORPUS, PASADENA PUBLISHES THE ANSWER: "View the Permit Center Calendar for upcoming closed dates (every other Friday & Holidays)", and the page renders a live list of open days. The list read on 2026-09-19 showed 21, 22 and 23 September open, 8:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. It was truncated to three entries, so no claim is made here about which specific Fridays are closed - the point is that the city publishes a calendar that answers it.. Official information: https://www.cityofpasadena.net/planning/permit-center/.

On alternate Fridays. The city publishes "Monday - Thursday & alternate Fridays from 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m." and "Closed alternate Fridays, Weekends and Holidays" - and then, unusually, tells you which: "View the Permit Center Calendar for upcoming closed dates (every other Friday & Holidays)", with a live list of open days on the page.

A City of Pasadena business licence. "A City of Pasadena Business License must be presented at arrival for all contractors and agent to contractors pulling permits." If you do not have one, it comes from a different counter - businesslicense@cityofpasadena.net or 100 N. Garfield Ave, Suite N106.

Pasadena publishes a choice. Its Codes and Regulations page lists the mandatory 2025 California codes and, separately, "Eaton Fire Rebuild Building Codes (Optional)" - the 2022 California Building, Residential, Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing, Energy, Green Building Standards and Fire Codes. Confirm the election with the Permit Center on (626) 744-4200 before designing to the older cycle.

Pasadena's permit history isn't searchable here yet

This page covers what the permit requires. What we don't have for Pasadena yet is the record of permits actually issued — the history you'd search by street address. That is a gap in our coverage, not a statement about any particular property.

Your email, and the place — never an address. We only use it to tell you when Pasadena lands. Privacy.

Building Permit in other cities

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