Placer County, CA Building Safety: Building Permits (2026)

070 amends CBC Section 105 to define when unincorporated Placer County requires a building permit and where it does not. Detached accessory buildings such as tool sheds and playhouses are exempt from a building permit if they stay under 120 square feet and 12 feet tall and meet planning services setback requirements, though a permit is still required for any electrical, mechanical, or plumbing work installed in them. Wire fences up to 12 feet for residential or agricultural use, and other fences up to 7 feet, do not need a permit.

Free-standing membrane structures under 200 square feet, properly anchored and set back per Chapter 17, are exempt as long as they carry no electrical, plumbing, or mechanical systems; in the Tahoe basin those structures must also avoid creating TRPA-regulated land coverage. Agricultural buildings on 10 or more acres zoned F, RF, FOR, AE, or RA are exempt from a full building permit but must still obtain a setback verification permit and comply with the county's plumbing, mechanical, and electrical codes. Radio and TV antennas up to 45 feet, and dish antennas up to 15 feet, are also exempt.

Within a recorded subdivision, no building permit issues until the subdivider's required improvements are accepted by the board of supervisors, except that early permits with a non-occupancy restriction may issue once the final map is recorded, pad grading is done, and roads and utilities to the lot are complete; early permits are capped at 20 percent of lots in a subdivision phase (up to 50 percent with CDRA approval) and four permits for subdivisions under 20 lots. Every issued permit expires two years after issuance unless extended, and an unstarted or unfinished application abandoned for a year is deemed abandoned and expired.