West Coast Code Consultants, Inc. - San Ramon, California

Scott Terry

We own a farm on 155 acres of agriculture land, out in the hills of Alameda County. Our permit application to install a small 32’ x 32’ pre-fabricated kit-barn on our property was contracted out to West Coast Code Consultants (WC3) for approval. Our property has no houses, buildings, or development of any kind. It is in the Williamson Act and is prohibited from any use, other than agriculture. There are no public water, septic, or sewer systems available to our property. We grow fruit and vegetables on a small portion of the parcel and need a small barn. Our permit application stated that purpose, and indicated that our little barn would not have power.

Apparently, WC3 was unable to grasp that concept. They failed our permit application for dozens of reasons. They wanted us to revise our application to identify the locations of sewer lines, the power pole to bring in 225-amp power (which would be required for a residential project), water meters, and dimensions of property lines that run for a half mile, and numerous other issues that are not relevant to an agriculture barn.

I called the WC3 office to talk with their plan checkers, and was told by the woman who answered the phone that everyone was working remotely and not available for phone calls. She encouraged me to respond to the plan-checkers by email, which I did. I explained the circumstances of our agriculture property, and reiterated that our barn would have no power, water, or access to sewer lines. The structural engineer who had reviewed the structural calculations responded quickly. He said I would have to wait for a response from the woman who had failed our permit. I never heard back from her.

Apparently, WC3 couldn’t be bothered to pick up the phone and return my calls, or respond to my email. After weeks of waiting for a response, I hired an architect to draft a more detailed site map and respond to the issues fabricated by WC3. Apparently, WC3 will only accept the facts if they come from an architect that cost me $1,350 to deliver it to them. And apparently a simple look at the site map we submitted with our application, or even a quick look at a Google map, wasn’t enough for WC3 to grasp that the closest sewer line to our farm is about 4 miles away. Or that a little barn without power is not required to have a 225-amp residential power service from PG&E.

If you are contemplating hiring WC3 for permit work, I would encourage you to ask yourself this question: If WC3 thought their professional responsibility was to fabricate issues to make things difficult for a farm that wants to build a little kit-barn in a tomato field, and was unresponsive to communications from the farm owner, how do you think they will treat you?

debbie ann

My city Livingston contracted this company for the building department and code enforcement.
They don’t help citizens get there project complete , They pick on citizens and a project that should take 6 months can take years. They don’t let the citizens choose there options they choose for you and if they can’t get there way they will coherence and some of the people that work for them are racist and they have no forum to address complaints and neither does Livingston whom there contracted with. The policy is don’t talk about the good old timers or we are going to give you a hard time. The Livingston city manager has never called me one time out whole time living here no matter how many messages. Horrible customer service.

Joe Seraphin

UPDATE:
WC3 has responded and has worked with us outside the normal channels to help our plans pass permit review and get solar permit approved.
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This company has contracted with El Cerrito to review solar plans. We are a solar installer serving East Bay since 2008 with 100% 5 star reviews and perfect safety record. They are refusing to approve our plans due to a 1/100th decimal technicality. I am on the 4th plan revision and they are making my job difficult, refusing to call me or provide a valid phone number to call to discuss plan changes before submitting them for review.

Humza Chowdhry

These guys are nothing short of fraud. As a licensed professional I have noticed significant and unnecessary comments for my clients which basically milks homeowners into paying these guys plan check fees. The more comments they give you the more money they make. The more they drag it out, the more money the make...
Now, for unprofessionalism. I had made a call to one of their senior structural engineers. Not only was he rude and dismissive, when I asked to speak to his supervisor he first said he did not have one. Then he said it was his wife and if I wanted to speak to her. Then he claimed the Millbrae Chief Building official Keyvan would assist. What he did not know was I personally know the CBO. His name is not Keyvan. His name is Val and we have worked together for many years. Keyvan was the former CBO of Milpitas. He now WORKS for Wc3. Really? He had the nerve to refer to Keyvan as the CBO of Millbrae and he really is a worker at Wc3. Misrepresentations and fraud. WOW. City of Millbrae and other jurisdictions beware.

Update: I never sent an email that issues were resolved as mentioned in the response. Talk about gaslighting. Nobody reached out to me. I reached out to Keyvan and had a pleasant conversation with him. He was professional and we came to a mutual understanding. He also agreed that their engineer Mr Ma acted in a very unprofessional manner based on the comments I posted above.

Tom

Excellent workers there. They really take care of your construction needs

Patrick Woolbright

A great way to prepare for becoming a building inspector.

Dan Perno

Informative and thorough.
I highly recommend!

George Novitskiy

Great company to work with