Title 24 reports for Hollister permits.
Hollister sits on the climate-zone line — Zone 4 inland while Watsonville, Santa Cruz, Capitola and Aptos are Zone 3 — and its permit counter is appointment-only, paper-and-USB, on a flat 15-business-day clock.
A reused coastal model runs the wrong zone
Hollister is CEC Building Climate Zone 4, while the coastal market next door — Watsonville, Santa Cruz, Capitola, Aptos — is Climate Zone 3. Reuse a coastal model here and it runs the wrong zone. HMC 15.04.050 lists “Part 6 California Energy Code (with local amendments),” but that phrase is boilerplate on nearly every part: there is no local amendment to the Energy Code — HMC 15.04.056(F) adopts it with nothing but Appendices 1-A and 1-B — and Hollister appears on neither CEC approved-ordinance list. The one genuine local reach lives in CALGreen, at 15.04.056(K): in new homes with private garages, one Level 2 EV Ready space per dwelling unit at 40 amps.
The friction is at the counter. There is no online portal: the city takes one bound hard-copy set plus a PDF emailed no earlier than the business day before, and first submittals and every resubmittal require an appointment booked through Microsoft Bookings. Review is a minimum of 15 business days for all submittals, and no expedited review is published anywhere, so a correction cycle costs a booked appointment plus three weeks with no way to buy it back. The residential handout asks for the energy set twice: as a stamped standalone document and as signed energy forms with calculations on a plan sheet, for any alteration, shell lighting addition or mechanical work — most of what an addition is. On ADUs, every document link on the city’s ADU page is a dead placeholder, leaving HMC Chapter 17.32 as the only usable source.
One thing that doesn’t change by city: my price and turnaround are flat statewide — $99 first report, $150 flat after, 24–48 hours on your first job. What differs city to city is what happens on the plan-check side before and after the CF1R lands in your permit set, which is what this page covers.
Nearby, same flat rate: Morgan Hill & Gilroy, Watsonville, Santa Cruz and San José.
Prices
Flat fees, in writing before I start. No hourly, no bid package, no change-order games — the number on the quote is the number on the invoice.
One honest note
I’m not a licensed engineer or architect, and I don’t stamp drawings. On the CF1R I’m the documentation author — you stay the responsible designer. Nothing about your role on the job changes.
That’s on purpose. I’m not after your scope or your clients. I do one piece of the permit set — the piece that usually holds it up — and I do it fast.
Hollister plan-check questions
If yours isn’t here, see the full FAQ or call and ask.
How do plans actually get submitted in Hollister?
Can I reuse a Santa Cruz or Watsonville energy model here?
What do you need from me to start?
A PDF of the architecturals and the project address. Floor plans, elevations and a window schedule is plenty.
You don’t need the HVAC or water heater picked. If the plans don’t call them out, I model what I’d normally specify for that job — and I list every assumption in the email so nothing is buried. Swap any of it and I rerun; that doesn’t count against your free revisions.
The design doesn’t have to be finished either. Early is often better, because that’s when a compliance problem is still cheap to fix.
How fast do I get it back?
24 to 48 hours on your first job, three business days for everything after that — a date you can put on the schedule, not an estimate. If your permit deadline is tighter than that, say so in the notes; I’ll tell you honestly whether I can hit it before you commit.
Send your Hollister plans.
The CF1R comes back run on Climate Zone 4 and formatted to go on a plan sheet as well as in the stamped standalone set, which is what the city’s residential handout asks for twice.