Title 24 reports for Newport Beach and Costa Mesa permits.
Newport Beach’s only energy-titled page still announces that the 2013 Energy Code takes effect July 1, 2014, and Costa Mesa’s only Title 24 handout is an off-site link that returns a 404. The live requirements are in the plan-check correction lists instead.
The requirements live in the correction list
Newport Beach’s California Energy Regulations page has one line of code content: the 2013 Energy Code will take effect on July 1, 2014. Read the correction list instead, footered 10-01-25, whose energy efficiency block runs items 59 through 71: item 59 wants the CF-1R forms on the plans, signed by designer or owner and by the documentation author; items 64 and 65 pre-print the two classic mismatches, water heater type and rafter depth not matching the energy documentation; item 66 makes CF-1R-required solar PV a cover-sheet deferred submittal. The city’s ADU page redirects off .gov, to a checklist that lists the Title 24 energy analysis first and marks it the only item required for all projects; geotechnical and survey are conditional.
Costa Mesa tells it from the other end: its Green Building page describes a program that ran from 2007 to 2009, and the one handouts-index item titled HERS certificate and Title 24 is not a city document but an off-domain link that 404s. The obligation lives in the submittal handouts, on all of them: current Title 24 energy forms for additions, for ADUs, even for a like-for-like equipment swap. Windows split them. Costa Mesa permits all window and exterior door replacements, retrofits included, at U-0.30 and SHGC 0.23 with a U-0.35 exception under 75 sf. Newport Beach runs the same changeouts as express permits with no plan review, but bans retrofit frames. Both are Climate Zone 6, neither publishes it, and neither amends the Energy Code — NBMC 15.17.010 and CMMC section 5-1 adopt it by reference.
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.
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.
Newport Beach & Costa Mesa plan-check questions
If yours isn’t here, see the full FAQ or call and ask.
Is there a way to speed up a Costa Mesa plan check?
Do I need Title 24 paperwork to change out windows in either city?
Plan check came back with an energy comment. Now what?
Forward it to me. If it’s a job I did, the first two revisions are free and I answer the comment directly — you don’t have to translate between your plan checker and me.
If someone else did the original report, I’ll still take it. Send the comment and the existing CF1R and you’ll get a flat quote back the same day.
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.
Send your Newport Beach or Costa Mesa plans.
The CF1R comes back registered and signed by the documentation author, with the special features on the sheet, so the energy block of the correction list has nothing left to say.