Santa Ana Planning and Building Agency - Santa Ana, California

Joshua Pogue

Absolutely the most unprofessional AHJ I have dealt with in a long time. Have an appointment system that they don’t even follow. Appointment for 11? Good luck being seen by 1. Counter people do not even know their ticket system.

Alan Li

I never knew the counter would "review" drawings onsite. They asked us to update notes on our site plan so we had to reprint copies and copies. Isn't that the plan reviewer's job during review?! They also told us we rolled the drawings wrong. They don't care about residents' time or money.

Chris Manko

This place is a joke. They never came out when my number was called.
Asked them later and saw them laughing. Worst department I’ve ever been to.
Not busy at all but everyone waits forever.
Avoid at all cost.

Kurt Snyder

I've never worked with a worse building department than Santa Ana. The issue is not the staff, to be clear, though some certainly need to remember the "servant" portion of their public service. The issues are typical government bureaucracy nonsense. Low staffing despite massive budgets, poor communication (waited for weeks for a call back), abridged counter hours supposedly to ease this problem, an unnecessary and non standard review process. Building dept won't even look at drawings until planning has approved them (ADU submittals). Most cities have all departments review at the same time. If I could take my drawings to another city to review for my Santa Ana projects I would... If you ever wanted an example of the failure of large government you need look no further.

Update
Had appointment for 12:40... I left at 3:50

kenjidao

Way too painful to deal with. Extremely frustrating. Prepare to way a long time to be call.

Mj m

I would give it -5 stars. You get different information from the counter staff regarding what you are allowed to build and no one is held accountable. If you try to reach them by phone they never answer. I called every number on the directory and no one answered!...lazy

Juan jimenez

Just answer the phone. So we don’t have to wait 2 hours to get a answer to a question.

Will Kazimi

Disorganized and I have to pull tooth and nail to get ahold of someone. A grown man can cry.