The Town Clerk maintains copies of building permits, inspection records, commercial building plans and specifications for building permits issued by the Building and Safety Department. Residential building plans are retained for a maximum of six months following the project completion. Copies are available to the public upon request. Requests to research building records must meet certain requirements. Per Section 6253 of the California Public Records Act, a request for building records must be a request that reasonably describes an identifiable record or records.

REQUESTING COPIES OF BUILDING PLANS
Requests for copies of building plans* must be accompanied by the following:

• An affidavit from the person requesting a copy of building plans affirming his/her acknowledgement of the limitations and restrictions on the use of the copied plans

• Written permission of the design professional who prepared and signed the plans

Read all of the required documentation needed to request building plans. 

Email to send requests for research of building plans.

*Building plans for financial institutions and public utilities are not subject to release. (Disclaimer)

Pursuant to Government Code Section 6254(k), records that are exempt from disclosure under state or federal law are also exempt under the Public Records Act. California Health and Safety Code Section 19851 provides that building plans can be inspected, but not copied without permission of the professional who signed the document and the original or current property owner. Furthermore, Federal copyright law [17 U.S.C. Sections 101 and 102(A)(8)] provides that architectural plans can be inspected, but cannot be copied without the permission of the copyright owner.