Bakersfield, CA Building Safety: Building Permits (2026)

Municipal Code § 15.05.010 adopts the 2025 California Building Code "for the purpose of regulating the erection, construction, enlargement, alteration, repair, moving, removal, demolition, conversion, occupancy, use, height and maintenance of all structures and certain equipment therein specifically regulated within the incorporated limits of the city, issuance of permits and the collection of fees thereof." Section 15.04.050 narrows what that reach means in practice: the buildings and construction code "applies to new building construction and to the installation of new mechanical, plumbing, electrical and sign systems as well as to existing construction and to existing mechanical, plumbing, electrical and sign systems to the extent specifically defined by the codes adopted by reference into this title." Once a permit issues, it doesn't last indefinitely: § 15.04.110 gives the building director authority to act when work "has been suspended or abandoned for a period of one hundred eighty or more days." The director must give the property owner written notice to either obtain a new permit and diligently complete the work, or demolish and remove it.

The owner then has thirty days from that notice to pull a new permit and get moving, or must instead obtain a demolition permit and remove the structure or project within sixty days of the notice date, there is no third option. Fee payment for any of these permits routes through the Master Fee Schedule under § 15.05.050, and the building director keeps a permanent transaction record under § 15.04.090. Read together, these sections establish that virtually any new construction, system installation, enlargement or alteration in the city requires a permit issued under Title 15, and that an issued permit carries an active-work expectation enforced by the 180-day/30-day/60-day timeline in § 15.04.110.