Ask a Question About Your Project
There is no phone number or email address on this site. This form is the way to reach us, and it goes to a monitored inbox.
- Tell us the community — it decides which building department applies.
- Rough size and whether it would attach to the house is plenty to start.
- Sending this is not a request for work and creates no agreement.
Four details worth including
None of them are required. They are the ones that turn a vague answer into a specific one.
Covered porch with a fan- The community. Jurisdiction changes the answer more than anything else. Oildale and Rosedale go through Kern County; Seven Oaks and Stockdale are City of Bakersfield addresses.
- Roughly how big. Width along the house and how far out you want it to come. Two numbers is enough.
- Attached or free-standing. Whether it would fix to the house or stand on its own posts.
- What the space is for. Shade at four in the afternoon is a different brief from keeping rain off a door.
If the question is "does this need a permit at my address", the honest answer is that only the building department can give you one. Community Development Department, Building Division is on (661) 326-3720; Kern County Public Works, Building Inspection Division is on (661) 862-8650. Both are free to call and both answer this question every day.
The two building departments
For anything that turns on your specific address, these are the authorities. They are quicker than this form and their answer is the one that counts.
City of Bakersfield
Community Development Department, Building Division
Applies inside the city limits, which includes areas such as Seven Oaks and Stockdale that read as suburbs but are city addresses.
Kern County
Kern County Public Works, Building Inspection Division
Applies to unincorporated areas, which includes Oildale and Rosedale despite their size, and every mountain and desert community on this site.
While you wait for a reply
The permits page and the calculators between them answer most of what people write in about, and they answer it immediately.
About getting in touch
What happens after I send this?
It arrives in a monitored inbox and you get a reply by email. Nothing is signed up for, nothing is charged, and sending the form does not create an agreement of any kind.
Can you tell me what my permit will cost?
No, and this site deliberately publishes no permit fee figures at all. The only Bakersfield schedule that could be verified was a proposed FY2021-22 document, and a proposed figure quoted as a current one is how people end up budgeting against a number that was never real. Community Development Department, Building Division on (661) 326-3720, or Kern County Public Works, Building Inspection Division on (661) 862-8650, will tell you the figure that applies today.
Can you tell me whether my project needs a permit?
In general terms, yes, and the permits page sets out what Bakersfield adopted and where the thresholds sit. For a determination on a specific property, only the department with jurisdiction can answer, and what they say governs regardless of anything on this site.
Is there a phone number?
Not on this site. The two phone numbers published here belong to the City of Bakersfield Building Division and Kern County Public Works, neither of which is affiliated with this site.
Are the costs on this site quotes?
No. Every figure here, including everything the calculators produce, is a planning range for the Bakersfield market. A quote comes from a licensed contractor who has stood at the wall you want to attach to.