Urban Midcoast Building Permit Cap & Waitlist

Under the San Mateo County Local Coastal Program (LCP), the County of San Mateo is limited to issuing a maximum of 40 housing unit building permits, including ADUs, in the urban Midcoast each calendar year.¹

The LCP allows the County to exceed the 40-unit limit for affordable housing, in which case the available permits for the following two years are reduced such that the average over the three-year period does not exceed 40 units per year.²

Due to a large number of affordable housing building permits issued at the end of 2025, the County's available building permits for housing units in the urban Midcoast are severely limited through the end of 2027. Under the reduced limit, the County has already received more building permit applications than it can issue through the end of 2027.³

The County will seek to amend its LCP to modify the 40-unit limit; however, this change requires approval of the California Coastal Commission and could take a year or more to complete. In the meantime, the County will handle residential permit projects in the urban Midcoast as follows:

• New planning permit applications for urban Midcoast residential projects will still be accepted and processed. We encourage applicants to submit planning permit applications now to initiate their entitlement processes, recognizing that the processing of such planning permits can, in many instances, take months to complete. However, applicants for planning permits should be aware that they will not be able to obtain a building permit for their project until 2028, or unless and until the LCP is amended.
• Active building permit applications for new housing units will continue to be processed and permits will be issued.
• Inactive building permit applications (applications that have had no activity for more than six months) will be cancelled. Applicants may reapply in the future, but their applications will be considered new applications and building permits will not be issued until more capacity is available.
• New building permit applications for urban Midcoast housing projects cannot be accepted until 2028, or unless and until the LCP is amended.

The County will provide more information on residential building permit capacity for the urban Midcoast as it is available.

1. LCP Policy 1.23 "Timing of New Housing Development in the urban Midcoast" currently limits the maximum number of new dwelling units built in the urban Midcoast to 40 units each calendar year, which includes ADUs.
2. The policy states that if the number of issued building permits for any given year has reached the 40-unit maximum, building permits for affordable housing, including second-dwelling units, may still be issued under the following circumstances:
   1. The units are "affordable" as defined by Section 6102.48.6 of the certified zoning regulations and subject to income and cost/rent restrictions for the life of the development; and
   2. The growth rate average over the three-year period, that includes the year of building permit issuance and the following two years, does not exceed 40 units/year.
3. In 2025, building permits were issued for 102 dwelling units, including 71 affordable housing units and 31 non-affordable housing units. To ensure that the average growth rate over the three-year period, including the year of building permit issuance and the following two years, does not exceed 40 units per year, the total number of building permits that may be issued for new housing units in 2026 and 2027 is limited to 18, unless the LCP is amended. As of March 2026, no building permits have been issued for new dwelling units in the 2026 calendar year.