In the Public Interest

Solar Permitting In Palo Alto

Learn more about recent changes made and what’s in the works to streamline the process and increase customer service

By Jonathan Lait, Palo Alto Planning and Development Services Director

I take the recent concerns raised about the City of Palo Alto’s solar permitting processes seriously and through this communication, would like to both acknowledge several issues raised through a recent article and also directly to me, and share my commitment to customer service and safety as key areas of focus looking forward.

Solar installations are an important aspect of the City’s overall focus on sustainability and addressing climate change. The City’s Utilities, Planning, Building and Fire departments have key roles implementing this priority. Together we are making changes to our permit and inspection procedures to streamline our review, offer consistent guidance, and balance our obligation to ensure these systems are installed safely while supporting the expansion of solar energy throughout the City.

Below I share specific changes we have made and are working on to reaffirm our commitment to customer service and improve our solar permitting and inspection efforts. I provide an email address where customers can connect with me directly on issues they are faced with or ask questions and lastly, offer a look forward on other areas of focus.

RECENT CHANGES IMPLEMENTED, MORE TO COME

Solar energy is a rapidly changing field and we are doing our best to keep up with technology despite declining budgets and reduced staff levels. The pandemic has exacerbated existing issues with our approach to permitting and our efforts to stand up a remote permitting operation, while largely successful, created new problems. Some of the problems included onerous requirements for applicants to ‘bookmark’ electronic plan sets. Another technical glitch resulted in some plans being relegated into a digital black hole where the application was not visible to staff. Though the bookmarking practice has since been abandoned and technical issue resolved, for many applicants this created significant delays and understandable frustration.

We are making other changes to our permitting process and have recently reduced and recommitted to our plan review timelines for electrification-related permits, which include solar panels, energy storage systems, vehicle chargers, heat pump water heaters, and heat pump furnaces. Residential electrification permit applications filed today will receive an initial response from the City within 14 days and some within five days. Larger installations greater than 10kw or commercial installations are reviewed within 30 days. We have also improved our internal performance tracking of these permits to ensure we meet these targets.

SHORTENING PERMITTING PROCESSING, INCREASING CONSISTENCY & MINIMIZING WAIT TIMES

We have heard complaints about excessive resubmittals to obtain a building permit, which adds time and costs to solar permit processing. I agree, and here is how we will address this. For starters, we are offering virtual meetings with applicants and any City department that has outstanding corrections after the second resubmittal. The intent of these meetings is to shortcut further resubmittals and focus our efforts on building permit issuance, when feasible.

Additionally, we are currently working on a consolidated plan review checklist for each residential and commercial electrification project type. This checklist will include requirements from each reviewing department and posted online so homeowners and contractors know in advance what is required to obtain an electrification permit. We will review these requirements and reference them to applicable State and local codes to verify what we are asking for is supported by a regulatory framework. A similar process is underway for our inspection program.

Our aim with inspections is to clearly share with contractors what we are going to look at in the field. For installations that meet these basic minimum safety requirements, no further inspection will be required. A failed inspection will specifically focus on those items that did not pass. However, as a regulatory agency committed to public safety, our inspectors will continue to exercise their professional judgement when needed to address other obvious compliance deficiencies. We will continue to strive to balance the need for safety, quality craftsmanship and the efficient processing of these electrification permits.

To improve consistency in our approach to inspections we are, for a limited duration, pairing up inspectors for technical cross training purposes and to reinforce a culture of professionalism and a commitment to customer service that reflects our shared interest to advance solar energy solutions in our community. Moreover, our building inspectors are now being trained by Utility and Fire department staff to verify compliance with certain residential solar projects to consolidate inspections and minimize the time a contractor needs to be onsite for these projects. For larger projects we are exploring opportunities to coordinate City inspection times for the same purpose of minimizing wait times.

IMPLEMENTING STATE CODES & SURVEYING OTHER JURISDICTIONS

Another complaint we hear is that Palo Alto has different requirements than other jurisdictions. All California jurisdictions are expected to follow the State’s International Building (Fire and Residential) Codes and Uniform Mechanical (Plumbing) Codes and National Electric Codes. Municipalities can adopt local amendments to the State codes and Palo Alto has done that in the past with its aggressive energy reach and green building codes. These amendments reflect local policy interests in the area of sustainability to reduce our carbon footprint. To the extent our local amendments are different from other jurisdictions in this regard reflects local policy direction.

Palo Alto is also different from most jurisdictions in that it provides its own utility service where most properties within the City are not served by Pacific Gas & Electric. This comparison to PG&E, which does have different requirements for alternating current disconnects, it does present an opportunity for evaluation of our local requirements. The City’s Utility department is conducting a survey of other utility providers to better understand ways the City’s requirements differ. We intend to present those findings and make any recommendations to the City’s Utility Advisory Commission (UAC) on August 4, 2021. At the UAC meeting, we also intend to identify other locally unique regulations or policies and recommend possible changes to the City’s zoning regulations to facilitate the installation of electrification equipment.

COMMITMENT TO IMPROVE

Criticism that Palo Alto’s permitting and inspection services have driven away solar contractors and increased the cost to Palo Altans to install solar infrastructure is a significant concern. I am committed to improving these processes to facilitate the installation of all electrification equipment, including solar energy, vehicle charging stations, battery storage and heat pump installations. While the profit margin for some solar installers may be too low to work in Palo Alto due to the City’s lower user utility rates compared to PG&E, additional costs associated with protracted permit processing times and unpredictable inspection services are mitigable and should not be a barrier to those interested in doing work in the City. To those contractors who now decline work in Palo Alto, I encourage you to reconsider this decision and give us another chance to show our commitment to the industry and our commitment to the Palo Alto owners and occupants who we ultimately serve.

While we have made progress implementing several changes, there remains much work still to do. We are in transition and working every day to improve our service delivery, ensure safe systems and streamline our processes. To help us achieve continued improvement, we are finalizing an online survey to gain real time service level feedback. In addition, I have set up a dedicated email address to answer questions about our program, the changes we are making and to follow-up on concerns regarding any active, pending or anticipated installation, including concerns about excessive inspections. Please email me at pdsdirector@cityofpaloalto.org.

LOOKING FORWARD

Until we are able to demonstrate improvement to our permitting and inspection process, our performance understandably will remain vulnerable to criticism. This does not mean however that we will compromise our integrity, accept poor quality construction or fail to inspect minimum safety or performance standards. This is a responsibility we have to our profession, Palo Altans, and installers doing work in this City. We can make changes to streamline our operations and also set reasonable expectations for contractors to perform at their best in Palo Alto.

Feedback on our performance is an area we will continue to expand upon for all customer touchpoints and this information will be shared online. After we have established some of the changes noted above, we will reach out to solar contractors and others involved in electrification efforts to encourage their work in Palo Alto and we will review our performance and feedback regularly and adjust. We will continue to check in with the UAC through next Spring to report on our efforts, successes, and continued opportunities for improvement.

Further, we have some upgrades to make to our website to centralize information online, including technical details that aid contractors in meeting certain requirements. We will explore technological solutions and applications that facilitate permitting and participate with regional entities focused on electrification efforts at the local level.

In the nearer term, our permitting process will soon transition into a hybrid in-person and remote service offering customers a choice in how they want to engage with our permitting staff. We currently offer virtual appointments for application submittal, which based on early survey results, has been a positive experience for our users. We hope to expand this service.

In closing, it is my goal to implement sustained reforms that make it clear what it takes to pull an electrification permit in Palo Alto, provide a measure of predictability in our inspection procedures and transparency in our performance to reach and maintain our review timelines. As we roll out new changes soon, I would appreciate hearing from the community and contractors working with us to learn how it is going.

- Jonathan Lait