Do I need a permit for an attached deck in
Lomita, California?

Lomita lies in the coastal hills of San Mateo County, and that geography shapes the permit process in ways that differ sharply from inland Bay Area cities like San Mateo or Menlo Park. Because Lomita sits in fire hazard and flood-risk overlay zones (depending on exact parcel), the Building Department applies stricter scrutiny to deck connections and drainage — you'll see notes about rooftop runoff deflection and ember-resistant materials that cities 10 miles inland don't enforce. Secondly, Lomita has adopted California Title 24 energy requirements and local amendments to the 2022 California Building Code that mandate post-installation verification for lateral load connectors on deck ledgers; that pushes your plan review from a simple over-the-counter 20-minute walk-through to a 2-4 week desk review plus post-frame inspection. Third, many Lomita residential parcels sit on expansive clay or Bay Mud soils (San Francisco Bay influence), which means footing depth and frost-line requirements vary lot-by-lot; the Building Department requires a soils report for decks over 12 feet long or if you're within 500 feet of a known bay-mud area. Finally, Lomita's online permit portal is mobile-friendly and allows e-filing with digital plan upload, which speeds the intake process compared to paper-only cities, but the city's 10-day-to-review clock doesn't start until all required documents (soils data, engineer stamp, flashing detail) are submitted — incomplete applications get put on hold.