Streamline Sacramento is accelerating housing and economic development one year after its launch, with a recap of major actions presented Feb. 24 to the City Council as part of the Streamline Sacramento 2025 update.

Streamline Sacramento , spearheaded by Mayor Kevin McCarty and Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum, identifies improvements to the City’s development approval process to increase housing and economic activity.

“To balance our budget long-term, we must grow our economy to increase revenue,” said Mayor Kevin McCarty. “With our Streamline Sacramento initiative, we are cutting red tape and making it easier to do business in the City — from housing to hotels to entertainment districts. While we cannot control interest rates, inflation, or the cost of labor and materials, we can control the process and certainty. These are common sense reforms that make our permitting process more transparent and user friendly.”

The initiative is led by the Community Development Department’s (CDD) Building Division and has been a customer-driven, cross-departmental effort focusing on all aspects of the building permit process.

This includes submittal of building permit applications, plan review, issuance of building permits, inspections, and final sign off to allow projects.

“Over the past year we’ve spent time listening to builders, developers and small businesses about their ideas to speed-up approvals and reduce costs,” said CDD Assistant Director Matt Hertel. “This has resulted in nearly 40 actions, with 72% of them being completed in the first year of Streamline Sacramento.”

Key impacts in the first year included shorter approval timelines, lower development costs, easier business openings and expansions, and improved customer service. Significant actions included:

• Creating the Small Business Liaison Program: providing personalized guidance from the City’s Building Division for restaurants and other small businesses navigating the permitting process, including development of a comprehensive webpage providing detailed guidance and the launch of the Permitting 101 classes.
• Increasing in-person Public Counter access: to enhance the customer experience, the City’s Public Counter increased their in-person hours to five days a week for those who need assistance, while still maintaining a 24/7 online portal.
• Implementing virtual inspections: Launched a new application for minor permits that allows real-time virtual inspections, reducing travel time, increasing daily inspections and giving customers flexible scheduling options. Inspectors can also focus more time on complex projects, helping move development forward more quickly.

The City has established itself as a statewide leader in housing production, being the first in the State to earn the Prohousing Designation from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Through the Streamline Sacramento initiative, the City has demonstrated its commitment to economic and housing vitality and will continue advancing and refining the development process through ongoing collaboration and improvement efforts.

A full list of improvements is available on the Streamline Sacramento webpage.

To receive updates on these improvements, please sign up for the Streamline Sacramento email list.