Title 24 reports for Santa Barbara permits.
Santa Barbara prohibited natural gas in new buildings in 2021 and repealed the ordinance in 2024 — and now runs the opposite play, waiving the permit fee outright when you take a gas system out and put a heat pump in.
A repealed gas ban, and a free heat-pump permit
Santa Barbara adopted a natural-gas prohibition for new buildings on July 27, 2021 — Ordinance 6014, codified as SBMC ch. 22.100, renumbered 22.110, with wholly new ADUs required to be all-electric. It is gone. The codified Ordinance List and Disposition Table records Ordinance 6144, dated 3/5/2024, repealing chapter 22.110; a code-wide search for 22.110 now returns only that table. SBMC 22.04.010 now adopts the California Energy Code, 2025 Edition by reference with no amendment section; the only CALGreen amendment caps decorative fountains at twenty-five square feet. Goleta, ten miles west, is on the CEC’s 2022 list, Ordinance 25-02.
What replaced it is money. Twelve OnDemand permit types issue with no plan review on one- and two-family properties, two of them Heat Pump Water Heater and Heat Pump HVAC Replacement, and the HVAC checklist says Sustainability and Resilience cover permit fees for upgrading an existing HVAC system to a heat pump — with up to $820 reimbursed on the Express lane. The catch on an HVAC change-out is documentary: upload State requirement documentation into CHEERS or CalCerts prior to building inspection, so HERS registration lands before the inspector does. Coastal Zone and historic properties are cut out of that lane. For drawn work, first review runs 10, 15, 20 or 30 business days by size with ADUs at 20 and every later review at 10; a copy of the required CF1R must be reproduced on the plans. Climate Zone 6, set from the parcel — ZIP 93130 returns Zone 5 and is a non-delivery range.
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.
Santa Barbara plan-check questions
If yours isn’t here, see the full FAQ or call and ask.
Does Santa Barbara still ban natural gas in new construction?
Who pays the permit fee on a Santa Barbara heat pump?
Does the project need HERS field verification?
Sometimes — typically for duct leakage, refrigerant charge, or certain heat-pump and quality-insulation measures. The CF1R lists exactly which measures need it, and I’ll flag it in the email so it isn’t a surprise at inspection. The field testing itself is done by a third-party HERS rater the owner or contractor hires; that’s outside what I do.
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.
Send your Santa Barbara plans.
The CF1R comes back ready to reproduce on the plan sheets, and registered, so the CHEERS or CalCerts upload is done before the field inspection rather than after it.