Title 24 Reports in Chico
Chico is climate zone 11 in all 3 of its street ZIP codes, and its Building Division takes every application, plan and document in digital form. The zone holds across the valley floor; it changes in the foothills, up Highway 32 and above Paradise.
- Choose your report
- Upload your plans
- Pay securely
- Permit-ready report by email
Digital from the first upload
Chico does not take paper sets. The Building Division requires every application, plan and supporting document in digital form — PDF or Word files only — and plan check correspondence goes out by email. Trade permits, from electrical and mechanical work to plumbing and residential repairs, can be applied for online through eTRAKiT.
For the energy side that is a convenience with one condition. The compliance documents travel as PDFs alongside the drawings, and a correction comes back as an email rather than a counter visit, so a revised report can go straight back in — provided it still matches the revised plan set sheet for sheet.
Fourteen free ADU designs
The city gives away pre-approved ADU plans: fourteen designs in its ADU Catalog, first paid for with a state housing grant in 2020. An ADU permit still needs three things — the building plans, a site plan, and an Erosion Control and Sedimentation Plan. The city's ADU page notes that the firm that drew the catalogue also prepares the energy calculations for those designs, so a catalogue unit may not need a separate report. A custom ADU, a garage conversion or an addition does.
The interface on the east side
Chico Fire notes that some properties in the city border open grassland, riparian forest and oak woodland, and in August 2016 the Santos Fire ran along Highway 32 in East Chico, burning more than 100 acres. Where a lot falls inside a mapped hazard zone, the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code applies alongside the energy code, and the two have to agree on the windows and roof the house is actually getting.
Where zone 11 gives way
Zone 11 covers 111 ZIP codes, and Red Bluff, Redding, Oroville, Yuba City and Marysville share it with Chico. The change comes with elevation, not distance. Forest Ranch (95942), up Highway 32 in unincorporated Butte County, is zone 16. On the Ridge, Paradise (95969) is still zone 11, while Magalia and Stirling City above it are zone 16, where heating rather than cooling drives the result. Those three are unincorporated, so their permits go to Butte County rather than the city, and a design brought up from the valley floor has to be modelled again for them.
Common Title 24 Questions in Chico
- Is Forest Ranch in the mountain zone?
- Is all of Chico in climate zone 11?
- Does the city or Butte County review my Chico permit?
- Do Chico ADUs need a Title 24 report?
- What does the Chico Building Division check in the energy calculations?
- Does a Chico remodel need Title 24?
- Do Chico commercial projects need Title 24?
Chico projects fall in California climate zone 11. The zone drives the envelope and equipment requirements a report has to meet, and a single city can span more than one, so it is confirmed per address.