Victorville | Permits and Fees

Victorville Permits and Fees: Who Decides, Deadlines, Appeals, Sewer Charges and Impact Fees

In Victorville, the Development Department runs planning and building permits, the Zoning Administrator and the Planning Commission decide most land use applications, and the City Council decides zone changes and hears appeals. Table 5-1 in Section 16-2.05.010 lists who decides each application and who hears the appeal. This page sets out that table, the deadlines and time limits in the code, and what the code says about fees. The City's fee schedules are adopted by Council resolution and posted on the City website, which refused automated requests for this guide, so no planning or impact fee amount appears here. The Victorville overview gives the short version.

Who Decides

Sources: Victorville Municipal Code Table 5-1 in Sec. 16-2.05.010; ADUs from Sec. 16-3.07.030 as amended by Ordinance No. 2469.

The Zoning Administrator is a City officer appointed by the City Manager to decide the applications Table 5-1 assigns. The Planning Commission decides larger applications at public hearings and also acts as the local appeals board for building matters. Under Section 16-2.05.010, "When a project includes approvals by multiple approving authorities, the highest level of approving authority shall be responsible for the final review." So a project that needs a CUP and a site plan goes to the Commission for both.

Site plan review applies to "All new residential development, including tract developments, an individual single family dwelling or multi-family dwellings," and to additions to a house, except accessory structures that add no living space and attached additions that add no kitchen. The Zoning Administrator may send any application to the Commission "due to its complexity, size, intensity, impacts, location, or for any other reason," and the applicant pays the fees that apply. A conditional use permit is a permit for a use that the land use table allows only after review; the Commission adopts each approval by resolution with findings.

Before You Apply

Section 16-2.05.020 requires a pre-submittal conference before any application for Planning Commission or Zoning Administrator action. The applicant brings "preliminary plans, sketches and basic site information," and staff from each division review them at a weekly meeting, to find what does not meet the code and discuss fixes. "Pre-submittal reviews shall remain valid for a period not to exceed six months." The City Manager or a designee may waive the conference for a project that already meets the code.

Each application is filed with the Development Department with "any required fees, plans, maps, reports, special studies, exhibits." A buyer under contract may apply if the purchase depends on getting the permits. The City reviews each project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the state law that requires a study of environmental effects; depending on the project, that may mean "a negative declaration, mitigated negative declaration, or environmental impact report." ADUs are decided ministerially, with no hearing, and Section 16-3.08.050 says SB 9 homes and small-lot maps need no public hearing and no CEQA review.

Deadlines and Time Limits

Sources: Victorville Municipal Code Sec. 16-2.05.020, 16-2.02.050 and 16-2.02.070, 16-2.01.090, 16-3.01.070 and 16-3.01.080, 16-3.08.040, 16-3.08.050, 16-4.02.030, 16-4.04.050, 16-5.01.100 and 16-5.01.110; Ordinance No. 2469.

Building permit limits were rewritten by Ordinance No. 2458 on November 18, 2025, when the City adopted the 2025 California building codes. A permit application may be extended only once, for up to 180 days, and no extension is given if the codes changed after the application or if there is an open code enforcement case on the property. A permit that lapses after substantial work can be renewed for "one-half the amount required for a new permit" if the plans do not change and the work stopped for less than one year. After a year, the full permitting process and fees apply again.

Before grading or building starts on a project with conditions of approval, the developer attends a pre-construction meeting unless the Building Official waives it. No building may be occupied until the Building Official issues a certificate of occupancy, the document that says a building is ready to use, and that happens "only after all the conditions of all departments have been met."

Conditional Use Permits, Variances and Hearings

A conditional use permit approved with a site plan "shall lapse and be void three years after the date of final approval" unless building plans have been accepted and are being processed; one approved on its own lapses after one year unless the use starts. The Zoning Administrator may grant one extension of up to ninety days. A variance, which is permission to depart from a standard such as a setback, requires findings that "special circumstances applicable to the property, including size, shape, topography, location or surroundings" deprive it of privileges that nearby lots in the same zone enjoy, and it may not allow a use the district does not allow. A variance or minor deviation outside a site plan lapses after one year, and one inside a site plan after two years unless construction has started.

For a public hearing, the Zoning Administrator sets the date, notice is published at least once in a newspaper of general circulation, and notice is also given under Government Code 65091. A minor deviation needs no hearing, but the applicant supplies "two sets of mailing labels and a radius map" so the City can notify owners of adjacent property before it decides.

Appeals and Reviews

An applicant, any resident of the City, or any owner of property in the City may appeal. Decisions of the City Manager, the Zoning Administrator and the Building Official go to the Planning Commission; decisions of the Commission go to the City Council. The appeal must be filed within ten days and must state "wherein a decision is not in accordance with the provisions of the Code," or where there was "an error or an abuse of discretion." Any Council member or Commissioner may also call up a Zoning Administrator decision for review, which "shall have the same effect as an appeal but shall not have a filing fee." On appeal, the Council "may affirm, reverse, or modify the decision," and its order "shall be effective forthwith."

How Fees Are Set

• Planning fees. "All Development Department fees shall be adopted by City Council resolution and administratively adjusted, as necessary, to reflect annual cost fluctuation," using staff salaries and the cost of living index.
• Building fees. Plan review and permit fees follow "the user fee study and Master Fee Schedule most recently adopted by resolution of the City Council," paid before the service.
• Impact fees. Section 16-5.01.080 says development impact fees "are to be charged and paid on all development projects within the City in accordance with the most recent City Council resolutions," under the Mitigation Fee Act, the state law that governs fees charged to pay for public facilities.
• Map fees. Title 17 says tentative, final and parcel map fees, improvement plan checking fees and field inspection fees are "prescribed by resolution of the city council."
• Drainage and road fees. Drainage and sanitary sewer facility fees are paid "Prior to filing of any final map or parcel map," and bridge and major thoroughfare fees may be a condition of a final map or a building permit.
• Water fees. The Victorville Water District sets its fees by board resolution, including a "Water rights charge" for new service connections.
• Hospitals. In the Health and Wellness Overlay, the City Council may consider impact fee reductions with a planned unit development that would promote hospitals or regional medical facilities.

State law limits when and how some fees are collected. Government Code 66007 says a city "shall not require the payment of those fees or charges" for public improvements on residential development "until the date of the final inspection, or the date the certificate of occupancy is issued, whichever occurs first." Government Code 66311.5 bars impact fees on an ADU of 750 square feet or less. See the California impact fees page.

Sewer Charges

The sewer rates are in the code itself. Section 10.01.030 bills single-family and multi-family homes "based solely on the number of dwelling units," and sets the maximum monthly charge per home:

Source: Victorville Municipal Code Sec. 10.01.030(d), monthly fixed service charge. The rates pass through changes in regional treatment charges after notice.

New construction also pays a one-time sewer capacity charge, the fee for a share of the sewer system's capacity. Section 10.01.040 counts it in equivalent dwelling units (EDUs): a single-family dwelling with twenty plumbing fixture units or fewer is 1.000 EDU and each multi-family dwelling is 0.916 EDU. As a worked example (VanPlex arithmetic), a fourplex counts as 3.664 EDUs. The dollar amount per EDU comes from "the city's most recently adopted Development Impact Fee master fee schedule," and the City also collects a regional connection fee "set by and subject to inflationary adjustment as determined and approved by the VVWRA commission," the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority.

Where to Go Next

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)