Richmond | Permits and Fees

Richmond, California Permits and Fees: Decision Makers, Appeals, Approval Terms, Planning Fees and Impact Fees

A Richmond, California housing project passes through planning approvals under Series 800 of Chapter 15.04, maps under Series 700, and building permits. Each step has a decision maker, a notice rule and an appeal period. The City Council sets fees in a Master Fee Schedule, and new homes also pay impact fees, charges per home or per square foot that pay for parks, sewers, police, fire and roads. This page lists the rules and the FY 2026-27 amounts. The Richmond overview has the summary.

Who Decides What

Source: Richmond Municipal Code Table 15.04.803.150 and Sec. 15.04.610.020, Supplement 74. Maps are on the lot size and subdivisions page.

The Zoning Administrator is the staff official who decides permits that need no board. A ministerial approval, such as zoning compliance review, checks plans against fixed standards with no hearing; a discretionary one, such as a use permit, lets the decision maker weigh findings and add conditions. The Zoning Administrator may refer minor design review and administrative use permits to the Design Review Board or Planning Commission, which then process them as major design review and conditional use permits. Section 15.04.101.040 states the intent that adjudicatory actions be taken "within a time frame consistent with" the Permit Streamlining Act, the state law that sets deadlines for permit decisions.

Before Filing and Completeness

• Pre-application review. Section 15.04.803.030 offers an optional review "intended for large, complex projects and/or potentially controversial projects." Its advice is "not binding on the applicant or the City," and the FY 2026-27 deposit is $5,000.
• Completeness. Under Section 15.04.803.040 the Zoning Administrator must decide whether an application is complete "within 30 days of the date that the application is filed with the required fee," or it is deemed complete under state law. An incomplete application gets a written list of what is missing and at least 30 days to supply it, with one extension of up to 90 days; after that it expires. A site with an existing zoning violation makes the application incomplete unless the project corrects it.
• Changes after approval. Under Section 15.04.803.120 the Zoning Administrator may approve minor changes "substantially consistent with the original findings"; larger changes go back to the original decision maker. The Master Fee Schedule charges 25 percent of the project fee for a minor modification and 50 percent for a major one.

Notice, Effective Dates, Appeals and Expiration

• Notice. Under Section 15.04.803.070, notice goes out "at least 10 days prior to the public hearing or, where no hearing is required, 15 days before the date of action." The types are a poster on the site, mail to owners within 300 feet, posting at City Hall, online and in two other public places, a newspaper display advertisement, and mail to occupants, neighborhood groups, nearby cities and service agencies such as the West Contra Costa Unified School District and East Bay Municipal Utility District.
• Effective date. "A final decision on an application for any discretionary approval subject to appeal is effective after the expiration of the 10-day appeal period," and "No building permit or business license" may be issued before that period closes.
• Appeals. "All appeals must be filed in writing within ten days of the date of the action." The appellant must state "how and where the underlying decision constitutes an abuse of discretion and/or is not supported by substantial evidence in the record." A timely appeal stays all proceedings, and the hearing body reviews only the issues raised. The Master Fee Schedule sets $350 for an appeal of a Zoning Administrator or Design Review Board decision and $500 for a Planning Commission decision, or "$150 if appealed by the corresponding Neighborhood Council."
• Expiration. An approval with no stated period "automatically expires if it is not exercised or extended within one year of its issuance." A building approval is exercised when a building permit is issued "and construction has lawfully commenced." The Zoning Administrator "may grant a two-year extension" on a written request filed before expiration, with findings of good faith effort and no substantial change; the Administrative Permit Time Extension fee is $1,463.

Planning Fees

Source: City of Richmond Master Fee Schedule FY 2026-27, Planning section, and Planning Division Fee Schedule. "Deposit" means "Actual Cost - Initial Deposit."

Many Richmond planning fees are deposits: staff time is billed against them at cost. The Planning Division Fee Schedule says that, except for flat fees, "the applicant agrees to pay all personnel and related direct, indirect and overhead costs," and that "no Certificate of Occupancy for the project will be issued, until all outstanding costs are paid." Interest accrues on costs unpaid for 30 days after billing. Applications go in online: the Fees and Checklists page says the Division "now only accepts planning applications through our online permitting system, IMS."

Impact Fees per Square Foot

Source: City of Richmond Master Fee Schedule FY 2026-27, "Developer Impact Fees - Collected at Building Permitting," column headed FY26/27 (Year 3 of the phased schedule).

The schedule phases these fees in over four years. Its columns are headed FY24/25 through FY27/28 over "Year 1" to "Year 4," with a "Previous" column of $9.92 per square foot in total; the FY 2026-27 column is used above, and the FY 2027-28 column rises to $22.20 for infill and $22.49 for subdivisions. The legend says "Subdivisions" means homes "constructed as part of a large subdivision development" and "Infill dwellings" means "developing new residential units on vacant or underused lots within existing urban areas." For a fourplex of four 1,000 square foot homes on an infill lot, the FY 2026-27 column gives 4,000 x $18.90 = $75,600 (VanPlex arithmetic), before the per-home fees below.

Per-Home Fees

• City traffic fee. $1,968 per single-family home and $1,573 per multi-family home, each marked "Update Pending" pending a traffic study. On April 7, 2026 the Council agenda listed a contract with Willdan Financial Services for a "Traffic Impact Fee Study and Comprehensive User Fee Study."
• STMP regional fee. The West County Subregional Transportation Mitigation Program fee is collected "by, but not set by the City": $6,915 per single-family home, $3,407 per multi-family home and $1,868 per senior housing unit in FY 2026-27. Chapter 15.12 says "accessory dwelling units within the footprint of an existing dwelling unit's habitable space are not required to pay the STMP Fee."
• Park land dedication fees. $432 per single-family home or townhouse, $372 per duplex home, $300 per condominium or cluster home and $216 per apartment in buildings of 7 or more.
• Inclusionary in-lieu fees. For projects of ten or more homes, from $3 to $12 per square foot of net new residential floor area; see the three or more homes page.
• Mitigation administrative fee. A "Mitigation Administrative Fee" of 3 percent of the total project impact fees administered by Finance.

For the same fourplex, the multi-family traffic and STMP fees add 4 x ($1,573 + $3,407) = $19,920, for $95,520 in all with the square foot fees, before the 3 percent administrative fee, park land fees, utility connections and school fees (VanPlex arithmetic). The schedule's park land list has no category for a fourplex.

State Deadlines and Fee Limits

State law sets the clock for the housing routes most owners use. An ADU application must be decided within 60 days of a complete application when there is an existing home on the lot, an SB 9 two-unit project or lot split within 60 days under Government Code 65852.21 and 66411.7, and a Richmond parcel map within 50 days under the City's own Section 15.04.703.090. For fees, Government Code 66311.5 bars impact fees on an ADU of "750 square feet of interior livable space or less," and Richmond's public facilities fee chapter exempts "Second residential units located in single-family zoning districts." The California impact fees page explains school fees and the state rules on when fees are due.

Where the Fee Documents and the Code Differ

• Effective dates. The City's Master Fee Schedule page links an "Approved Master Fee Schedule Effective July 23, 2026," whose pages are dated June 23, 2026, the day the Council adopted Resolution No. 104-26. The Planning Division Fee Schedule says "Effective July 1, 2026 Per City Council Resolution No. 66-25, Adopted June 3, 2025," and the Fees and Checklists page labels it "Application Fees (Effective July 3, 2025)." The amounts match; ask the Planning Division which date applies to your filing.
• Expiration. Section 15.04.803.110 says an approval expires after one year; Section 15.04.101.040.D says approved projects "must be completed" within two years of approval.
• Appeal scheduling. Section 15.04.803.140 has appeals scheduled within 60 days; Section 15.04.702.050 has map appeals scheduled within 30 days, and cites "Section 15.04.803.130," the revocation section, for appeal procedures.
• STMP amounts. Section 15.12.040 prints the 2019 amounts, $5,439 per single-family and $2,679 per multi-family home, adjusted each year for inflation; the Master Fee Schedule lists the current amounts and cites "Ordinance 29-06."

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the Richmond overview, the California impact fees page and the CEQA and permit streamlining page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)