Create a Citizen Access account at Fremont.gov/CitizenAccess. For help or questions, view the Citizen Access User Guide or Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

 Log in to your account.

Select “Submit an Application" and the type of permit you need (planning, building, or engineering). For help determining what permit/record type to select based on your project, visit the Permit Types webpage.

Complete the online form by using the directions to understand what is required for each section. If any steps or required information are missing, error messages will pop up at the top of the screen to inform you of what needs to fixed.

Address Tip: Use the "Address" search to query the City's parcel database to fill out the address, parcel, and owner information, which are all required fields. To do this successfully, enter the street number and the partial street name with the wildcard % (e.g., 39550 Lib%), then select "Search." If only one address is available, it will populate the address, parcel number, and owner. If multiple addresses are available, select the correct address for your project. If the parcel number or owner has recently changed, leave them as is so you can submit the request. Then, inform City permitting staff that these items need to be corrected. Staff can do this in the backend of the system.

Upload the required plans/documents. Each permit/record type requires different documentation to be submitted. Make sure to read the Project Summary page of the record for the required documents.

Electronic documents need to conform to specific formatting requirements. View the requirements.

Upon submittal, project documents will be reviewed for conformance with the requirements. Plans/documents that do not conform to these requirements will need to be corrected before they can be processed.

To verify that your plans/documents conform to the electronic document requirements, please run your plans/documents through Scout, the PDF document analyzer that City staff uses. If the plans/documents do not conform, Scout will identify what the issues are that need to be addressed in order to successfully upload plans/documents in Citizen Access. Note that Scout limits PDFs to 500 pages, but Citizen Access allows PDFs with up to 1,000 pages. If your plans/documents fail because the number of pages exceeds 500 but is less than 1,000, the plans/documents upload should not fail in Citizen Access.

For planning permits, as part of the online application, applicants must complete and upload the following two forms:

• Owner Authorization Form – Must be signed by the Property Owner
• Reimbursement Agreement – Must be signed by the Billing Party
• Sometimes Required: Property Owner Verification – In Citizen Access, the Property Owner information will auto-populate based on the address or parcel number provided. It is not editable with the application. If the owner information is incorrect and/or has recently changed, click NO in the next section “Verify Owner Information.” You must upload verification of the correct ownership (i.e. a property deed) later in the application process.

These documents must be wet-signed or signed with a verified electronic signature by the appropriate party and uploaded to the application in Citizen Access when prompted.

Continue form to payment checkout cart. Accepted credit cards are Mastercard and Visa. If the Citizen Access account is linked to a trust account, "trust account" will be a payment option in the checkout cart.

Beginning January 2023, a 2% convenience fee will be added to each credit card payment and will be identified in the checkout cart and included on the receipt. There will also be no maximum credit card payment amount. Payment of the initial fees must be made online via credit card in order to submit the permit request. If you do not want to pay with a credit card and would rather pay by check/cash, then you should not continue with the online submittal and instead make the submittal in person at the Development Services Center/Permit Center during operational hours.

For records requiring a deposit (i.e., most planning and engineering permits), the deposit is not due upon initial submittal in Citizen Access. Instead, after submittal, an invoice will be emailed to you with the option to pay the deposit with a credit card in Citizen Access or by mailing/delivering a check to the Development Services Center/Permit Center.

Once the payment is complete, confirmation of the successful payment is provided on screen, and a copy of the receipt is emailed to you.

• After your permit request is successfully submitted, you will see the new record number in your Citizen Access account under “My Records.” The record status will be “Received.”

• Processing staff will review new submittals in the order they were received and will contact you as soon as they get to the record in the processing queue. The record status can be checked at any time by logging into your Citizen Access account and selecting “My Records.”

• The new request will be reviewed by staff to determine if enough information has been provided/uploaded to route it for review. If necessary information is missing to enable routing of the request for plan review, you will be contacted via email with a list of information that is necessary in order to initiate the review.

• Once all required information is provided and fees are paid, the record will be routed for review. The plan review timeline begins once the record is routed for review. 

• If you applied for a Residential Express Permit, it will automatically be issued.

• Once all the necessary information is received and the record is routed for plan review, a Team Lead will be assigned. You will receive an email that will identify your Team Lead and how to contact them. The Team Lead will be your contact through the plan review until the request is issued/approved.

• For information on how long the plan review process will take for each type of building permit, view the City’s Building Permit Plan Review Timeline. Please be advised that this information is subject to change.

• When the plan review is complete, you will be notified via email to access the plan review summary report, comment letter, and marked up plan sets in Citizen Access. To access these documents, log in to your account, select "My Records," select the record number under "My Records," select "Record Info," and then select "Documents.” If additional plan review cycles are required, comments will be transmitted to you via this same process.

• For instructions on how to resubmit plans/documents for additional review cycles, view the City's Plan Review Resubmittal Instructions.

• When the project is approved, you will be notified via email and will be able to access the approved documents in the record’s "Documents" tab in Citizen Access.