Santa Rosa launches new online portal to untangle $10K yearly permit applications

Santa Rosa handles roughly 10,000 permit applications a year, and starting this week, all of them can be submitted, tracked and paid for without a single trip to City Hall.

A permit is the city’s official signoff before someone can build, renovate, host an event or make other changes that affect property or public space, and for years getting one in Santa Rosa meant working through several separate channels: an application, paper plans, a phone call to check status and an in-person visit to schedule an inspection.