Pull Your San Diego Building Permit — Direct Links + How to Read Codes
OpenDSD is the official system of record for every building permit, mechanical permit, electrical permit, plumbing permit, grading permit, and certificate of occupancy ever issued inside the City of San Diego. It is the same database DSD plan reviewers and inspectors write to in real time. We deep-link you there directly — no middleman, no stale mirror — and we show you how to cross-check the contractor against the California CSLB.
Opens on opendsd.sandiego.gov — the official City of San Diego government site. For unincorporated SD County, use SD County PDS. Verify the contractor at CSLB License Lookup.
What to look up
OpenDSD accepts three search axes: street address, project number (PRJ), and approval number. Address search returns every permit ever pulled on the parcel — useful when buying a North Park craftsman with a granny flat and wanting to confirm the ADU was legally permitted under California's SB 9 / SB 13 framework. Project number lookup pulls the full job card, including plan-review comments and inspection history. The portal also surfaces coastal-development permit (CDP) approvals for properties west of the coastal zone boundary, slope and brush- management approvals, and DSD code-enforcement actions, none of which appear on private scraped mirrors.
How to read San Diego permit codes
San Diego DSD uses a project-and-approval structure. A PRJ number identifies the overall project (e.g. PRJ-1234567). Beneath that sit one or more approvals, each tagged by discipline: BLDG (building), MECH (mechanical), ELEC (electrical), PLBG (plumbing), GRAD (grading), DEMO (demolition), SDP (site development permit), CDP (coastal development permit), NDP (neighborhood development permit). The status field reads Issued, Final, Expired (12 months without inspection), or Cancelled. For ADUs, look for a separate companion permit referencing the state ADU statute — a single BLDG approval without that companion can mean the unit isn't actually permitted as a dwelling.
Red flags to watch for
The single biggest red flag on a San Diego property record is an expired permit on substantial work — ADU, addition, retaining wall, deck. Expiration without a final inspection means DSD never confirmed the work meets the California Building Code, and the buyer inherits the open permit. Second: contractor license expired on the date of the permit — cross-check the contractor on OpenDSD against the CSLB lookup; an unlicensed or expired contractor voids the permit-shield and exposes the homeowner to liability. Third: in the coastal zone, a building permit without a matching CDP approval is a serious red flag — the California Coastal Commission can require the work be undone. Fourth: SB 9 lot splits need their own approval track; a structure on a recently split lot without a clear lot- split record can mean the parcel boundary isn't legal yet. Finally, if address search returns no records on a clearly remodeled North Park or Hillcrest property, the work is either pre-2003 (paper-only) or unpermitted.
Questions LA homeowners actually ask
Because DSD records change throughout the day. A pulled permit, an issued stop-work order, or a final sign-off updates on OpenDSD in real time — any third-party mirror is already out of date. The only honest answer is the source system, so we deep-link you there.
AskBaily does not scrape DSD or CSLB
We have no OpenDSD database mirror. We do not cache permit results. We do not sell permit data. The deep-links above are the entire integration — the homeowner reads the City of San Diego record on the City of San Diego system, and verifies the contractor against the California CSLB directly. That is the only way to know what is actually on file.
Last reviewed 2026-04-24.