Title 24 Reports on the Central Coast

From Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara, four mild coastal zones decide what a report must show, and a permit can involve the Coastal Commission or a historic review.

  1. Choose your report
  2. Upload your plans
  3. Pay securely
  4. Permit-ready report by email

Five counties along the coast

Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz are the three counties of the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments. This guide adds San Luis Obispo County and Santa Barbara County to Monterey County; Santa Cruz County and San Benito County have no county page yet. Ventura's coast shares zone 6 with Santa Barbara but is in the Southern California guide, and Gilroy and Morgan Hill are in the Bay Area guide.

Four zones, north to south

Of the coast's 99 ZIP codes, 38 are in zone 3 (Santa Cruz, Salinas), 21 in zone 4, 29 in zone 5 (San Luis Obispo) and 11 in zone 6 (Santa Barbara). Zone 5 is the smallest in the state, with 42 ZIP codes. Zones 3 and 5 set no solar heat gain limit and use R-30 ceilings and R-6 ducts, against R-38 and R-8 in zone 4. Zone 6 allows U-0.065 walls and U-0.30 windows. With one dwelling, the equation alone owes no PV below about 1,080 square feet in zone 3, 1,260 in zone 5 (the highest threshold of any zone) and 960 in zone 6.

Coast, history and local rules

The Coastal Commission puts the coastal zone at generally under 1,000 yards inland in developed areas, and state law gives 60 days to decide a coastal permit for an ADU. In Santa Barbara's El Pueblo Viejo district, the Historic Landmarks Commission governs alterations, and its guidelines make vinyl windows, or aluminum-frame windows where none existed, ineligible for administrative approval. Santa Cruz is the one Central Coast city among the Energy Commission's ten approved ordinances, with two. For small units, a new detached unit of 500 square feet or less may use a point-of-use electric water heater, and an ADU addition of 700 square feet or less is excused from quality insulation installation; see junior ADUs and windows and Title 24.

Every county, city and zone on the coast

Three county pages and four city pages are live, each noted with its zones.

See the locations page for other regions and the counties page for every county.

Order a Central Coast report

Send the plans and the address, and mention a coastal or historic review if the lot has one. ADUs start at $199, homes at $245 and multi-family at $345, with unlimited revisions until the plans comply. A 24-hour rush is an extra $95.

From $199 · ready in 2–3 days

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