Spent 3 weeks fighting city hall for a permit, and a one page form I found online did it in 2 days
I was ready to give up on our block party because the permit office kept bouncing my paper forms back for tiny mistakes, three times in a row, and each round trip ate a week. My neighbor mentioned that our city, Sacramento, had moved the whole thing to an online portal last spring and the paper version was basically a trap for people who did not know better. I uploaded the same info in about 20 minutes, paid the $38 fee with a card, and got approval in 48 hours. The part that bugged me is that the clerk never once mentioned the portal when I was standing at the counter. If you are still mailing or hand delivering your permit, check your city website first because you might be wasting a month for no reason. Has anyone else found out way too late that there was a faster way to do this?