Santa Monica Permitting & Expediting Services

Crest Real Estate is vital in facilitating the permitting process in Santa Monica. With a focus on sustainability and innovation, our team works to ensure projects meet the city’s strict standards for energy efficiency, seismic safety, and zoning compliance.

Our Services

Due Diligence

Analysis of client objectives, government codes, and property characteristics to determine the highest and best use of a site through the creation of a Property Development Analysis Report (PDA). The PDA provides a strategic game plan for government submittals and plan preparation.

Code Consulting

Decoding municipal codes is our forte, ensuring optimal outcomes within each zone for your project's development. Trust Crest's technical proficiency to navigate the complexities and maximize potential.

Permit Expediting

Working with the design and engineering teams, Crest submits plans for plan check, coordinates corrections, clears conditions with all pertinent departments, and obtains building permits through a maximally efficient procedure. Accelerated permitting timelines are achieved through knowledge of the plan check process and a detail-oriented management approach.

Entitlements & Discretionary Hearings

Preparation of applications and case findings for projects seeking discretionary approvals for development allowances. Expert presentations are made to hearing authorities, including planning commissions, architectural review boards, and city councils.

Supplemental Permits

Changes often occur after permits are issued. When they do, Crest obtains supplemental approvals from the City as soon as possible to minimize impact to financially sensitive construction schedules.

Inspection & Construction Assistance

From coordinating with city inspectors to securing certificates of occupancy, Crest Real Estate streamlines the construction process, offering proactive solutions and expert oversight beyond traditional assistance.

Project Management

On certain projects, Crest will act as an owner’s representative or project manager by identifying project needs, selecting consultants and contractors, preparing schedules and budgets, and seeing that they are complied with through oversight of the team while interfacing with the community, governmental agencies, and client’s legal and financial counsel.

Lobbying and Government Relations

rest has built positive relationships with city and state officials through years of transparent communication and thoughtful, solutions-oriented collaboration. Crest effectively advocates for clients’ interests by expertly navigating governmental processes and telling the right story to the appropriate decision-makers.

Experienced Leadership

Utilizing training from over a decade of exposure to the elite talents of the industry including developers, construction managers, architects, engineers, and contractors, as well as the knowledge of success gained from the involvement in over 1,000 diverse real estate development projects, Jason, Steven, and their team at Crest Real Estate have the experience and ability to lead diverse projects from the conceptual stage through the completion of construction.

Faster Project Completion & Cost Savings in Santa Monica

Expediting involves accelerating the review and approval processes for permits and other regulatory requirements. This can significantly reduce the overall project timeline, allowing for quicker completion and occupancy. It is particularly important in situations where time is of the essence, such as emergency repairs or time-sensitive construction projects.

By expediting the permitting process, project delays are minimized, which can lead to cost savings. Delays can result in increased labor and material costs, as well as potential penalties for missed deadlines. Reducing these delays can help keep the project within budget.

Enhanced Santa Monica Planning and Coordination

Going through the permitting and expediting process often requires detailed planning and documentation. This helps project teams better understand and coordinate various aspects of the project, including design, construction, and compliance with local regulations. Improved planning can lead to a more efficient and well-executed project.

Santa Monica Safety, Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory agencies often review plans and specifications to ensure that they meet safety and quality standards. By obtaining permits and undergoing the permitting process, projects are subject to these checks, which can help ensure that they are built to a high standard and are safe for occupants and the community.

Proper permitting ensures that a project complies with all applicable laws, regulations, and codes. This helps mitigate legal risks and potential liabilities. Non-compliance with permitting requirements can result in fines, project stoppages, or even legal actions, all of which can be costly and damaging to a project's reputation.

Santa Monica Permitting & Expediting FAQ

Why are Crest’s services held in such high regard, in the Greater Los Angeles Area?

What we do with our coined PDA, standing for property, development, and analysis, is come up with the full game plan and strategy for your design team and you as a client looking at the abilities for a property with its future development potential

What other services does your company offer and why are they important to mention?

We found an important role advising project teams and clients on who might fit their criteria and needs the best. So we like to input our recommendations to clients on the best consultants to execute their project to the highest level.

People do mention how the permitting and expediting process can be time consuming with a lot of paperwork and detail involved. Can you elaborate on the process more from the perspective of Crest ?

If the process were simple we would not have the desire and need for the services that we currently command. However, it's not as though these processes are unnecessary there is a lot of very important oversight and review that goes into the permitting of a new project that goes into the zoning at the basic states but then it goes into the important details like the structural planned review to make sure that the building is stable, geotechnical for the ground stability, environmental with water and landscaping and energy that is utilized by the house, and it really just spans into so many different departments where it becomes this long process with many many layers but if you took any of them away there may be a lack of oversight and careful consideration needed to make sure the projects that are built in these cities are at the most well-executed level possibly.

The Crest website also mentions how the involvement begins at different stages throughout the development process. What are some of these different stages?

Ideally we come in at the front end so that we can provide our property dev analysis so that when someone is looking to acquire or sell a property, they are either buying it with all knowledge or selling it for the maximum allowed value with the least amount of contingencies so that someone coming in to purchase the property can understand what it is that is being sold. However, we are not always fortunate enough to come in at the front end of a project. So in those cases, we can be brought on during the design phase, where we are working with the design team and co consulting on the allowances and code restrictions together to get the permits, or we are brought in after their project is submitted and people realize they've missed important and critical items that could have been solved earlier and we come in to solve those problems.

What specific areas does Crest service in the greater Los Angeles area? Are there any future plans for expanding?

We are focused on land use and entitlements and pride ourselves as being the preeminent experts in the municipal codes spanning from Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Malibu. We also have current projects standing outside to the LA basin, South towards Newport Beach and Orange County, North to Calabasas Ruth Santa Barbara, and are even doing some projects now with existing clients In the city of Austin, Texas. When working in the permitting industry, it's essential to have a deep knowledge of geography. This knowledge can prove useful in several different ways. For instance, every city and county can have its own set of building codes and regulations that your property will need to adhere to. Once you've identified where your property is going to be built, having knowledge of Southern California geography can facilitate a speedier permitting process.

Jason, do you or your team usually go visit the site you are developing on? If so, how do you think this affects the permitting and expediting process?

I think it's really important to make a site visit one of the first actions to be taken when a new project comes into our office. The reason for that is there are so many small nuances and differences between properties even though you think you may understand typography or the site context. There's always something you're going to learn about the unique characteristics of the site by physically walking on the property And analyzing it completely.

Can you elaborate on Crest’s services a bit more and why they are held in such high regard in the Greater Los Angeles area?

Overall do you find that these areas are developing at a more rapid pace than the surrounding neighborhoods? Why or why not?

I think you're always going to see increased construction trends in the most desirable neighborhood because that is the most limited amount of real estate with the most amount of desire. It's a simple supply and demand algorithm for determining where the most construction is going to be.