CATALOG OF PROBLEMS WITH SLO COUNTY BUILDING |
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This page is a work in progress. Last updated: 8/4/2025 |
Over the last 10 years I have had many problems with obtaining building permits in the County of San Luis Obispo. These problems generally reside in one or both of two categories: 1. The Building Department does not follow the published county codes, ordinances and guidelines. 2. The Building Department staff are ignorant about the techniques and practices of solar-electric installation. |
a. Both of these problems are compounded by the fact the building staff refuses to consider they may be wrong in their assessments. Solar-electric systems and the codes that regulate these systems have become increasingly complicated. Because of this, it is not uncommon for building officials to be uninformed about these subjects. I don't expect building officials to know everything about solar-electric systems, but they should not pretend they do. |
| b. With great authority should come great responsibility. Building department decisions can interrupt the livelihoods of contractors, subs and vendors. When the county building department denies a building permit for faulty reasoning and refuses to educate themselves on the subject, construction is delayed. Contractors, subs and vendors stop earning. Citizens don't get their projects built. In the meantime county staff keeps collecting their salaries without interruption. |
| c. All too often the supervisors of the building department choose to automatically believe erroneous conclusions made by staff without taking any time to review the pertinent issues. This makes getting a just determination almost impossible. Most often contractors give in and change the details of a project even if the original plan was well conceived and code compliant. |
| d. The County of San Luis Obispo Code section 19.01.050(c) requires the building department maintain an appeals board. The board is supposed to be staffed by five members who are qualified by experience and training to pass upon matters pertaining to building construction |
| e. There are occasions where a legitimate defect is found in one of my permit applications. In these cases I correct the problem and resubmit my application. |
| e. Below are a list of the problems I have experienced along with complete documentation on how the building department has demonstrated their incompetence and hubris. There are a lot of issues and to keep up with documenting them is time consuming. Therefore this list will grow over time. There are some place-holders below. Keep checking back here. |
| g. Paragraphs below that do not yet include a link are case studies I am still writing. |
| List of issues with the County of San Luis Building Department, with documentation. |
| 1. Problems with permitting a ground mount system in 2025. Currently unresolved. The building department has published a list of technical requirements for submitting a building permit application. Randomly they choose to ignore these requirements and make up new rules. |
2. Lighting for Ag-exempt barns. Ag-exempt barns are allowed to have as much lighting "as necessary" for safe nighttime operation. The building department thinks they can decide how much lighting is needed for safe farming operations, even if that number conflicts with what the actual farmers decide they need. |
| 3. Special Inspections: Special Inspections are a means to provide supervision for technical construction operations that the local inspectors do not have the expertise to provide. The requirement for Special Inspections is discretionary. Building staff misinterprets the CBC statue. |
| 4. Expertise gap: Off-grid, battery and generator based power systems are a bit more complicated than garden-variety grid-tied systems. Building staff tries to apply minimal grid-tied knowledge to off-grid systems. |
| 5. Drawings not to Industry Standards. This is Matt Varvel's complaint. There are no industry standards. My drawings are demonstrably superior and more readable than most drawings provided by manufacturers and engineers. A few examples are included. |
| i. A note about tone: I always, always try to remain civil and professional. The depth and duration of these problems make this difficult. I won't use anyone's name here unless I have specific, documented experience or correspondence with that person. |
| ii. Correspondence with county employees and elected officials may be included here in part or in total, possibly without specific permission. This material is part of the public record. |