A county of separate building departments

Orange County has 34 incorporated cities, from Anaheim, Santa Ana and Irvine to Laguna Woods and Villa Park (County of Orange, Orange County cities). Each city issues its own building permits, and the County's development services handle the unincorporated areas (OC Public Works, OC Development Services). For a multifamily practice that works across the county, that means the code is shared and the process is not: the California Building Standards Code, with each city's local amendments, reviewed by a different department with a different submittal portal in nearly every city.

The production work has to follow. A sheet template, a PDF export and a correction log that suit one city may need adjusting for the next, and on a first Orange County project, the studio would settle with your office how that city wants the set before the first sheet is issued.

Anaheim: GoPost

Anaheim's Building Division takes electronic plan review submittals through its GoPost portal, which the city describes as one place to upload initial submittals and resubmittals, submit applications and forms, and receive corrections. Payment is required before the plans are accepted and routed for review, and a separate GoPost account for Building is needed even for applicants who already hold a Public Works or Planning account (City of Anaheim, Building Division electronic plan review). The city also publishes its electronic plan review submittal requirements as a customer handout (City of Anaheim, EPR submittal requirements).

Irvine: IrvineREADY!

Irvine reviews building plans electronically through IrvineREADY!, submitted on the city's goPost portal. The city requires plans to be submitted online through IrvineREADY! for most new project submittals, with completed forms uploaded to the attachments tab and only plan sheets in the plans tab. New apartments and condominiums use the city's "New Residential Models/Production/Condominiums/Apartments" package, and revisions follow the city's revision and deferred submittal packages (City of Irvine, Electronic Submittal Packages and News).

That split between forms and sheets is a small rule with a production consequence: the sheet PDF for an Irvine submittal holds sheets only, bookmarked and in order, with every form exported as its own file.

Santa Ana and the public right-of-way

In Santa Ana, the Public Works Agency accepts online plan submittal for electronic plan check through ProjectDox, for the work it reviews in the public right-of-way (City of Santa Ana, plan checking, permitting and mapping). On a multifamily project, the street improvements, utility connections and frontage work go to Public Works, while the building set goes to the Planning and Building Agency. Two reviews, two systems: the building set and the civil and frontage drawings move on separate tracks, and the studio keeps the building sheets coordinated with the civil drawings your consultant issues to Public Works.

What changes from one city to the next

On a practice's second or third Orange County project, the differences that cost time are rarely in the building code. They are in the submittal itself:

The portal and the account. Each city has its own portal and login, and payment is often required before review starts, as in Anaheim.
The file split. Some cities want forms and sheets in separate files, as in Irvine; others want one combined set with bookmarks.
Local amendments. Each city adopts the state code with its own amendments, which belong in the code analysis on the general sheets.
Deferred submittals. Which items may be deferred, such as fire sprinkler or truss drawings, and how they come back for review, is set by each city's process.
The correction format. How comments arrive, in a report, a shared review session or a list in the portal, decides how the response letter is organized.

On a first project in a given city, the studio would settle those details with your office before the first sheet is issued.

The state rules that apply in every city

Whatever the city, a multifamily set in Orange County is drawn to the same state requirements:

Accessibility. CBC Chapter 11A for privately funded housing and Chapter 11B for publicly funded housing and the public areas of most projects; see the 11A and 11B guide.
Energy. Title 24, Part 6, with the compliance forms coordinated to the assemblies on the sheets.
Density bonus. The State Density Bonus Law, which every California city implements; see the density bonus guide and the density bonus calculator.

Affordable housing in the region

Orange County is its own geographic region in the state's 9 percent tax credit competition. In CTCAC's 2026 credit estimates, the region's apportionment is 7.3 percent of the geographic credits, about $5.6 million in annual federal credits (CTCAC, 2026 credit estimates). Tax credit projects are drawn to Chapter 11B in the units it covers, which shapes the unit matrix and the enlarged unit plans from design development on.

How the studio works on an Orange County set

The founder's own record is in Los Angeles, next door, and the studio does not claim Orange County projects. What transfers is the production and the correction process:

Your model and template. Every sheet drawn in your Revit model, to your standards, under your worksharing rules.
The city's format. The sheet set, file split and naming prepared for the receiving city's portal before the first issue.
Corrections on the sheets. Each comment answered in writing and on the drawings, with a dated log, resubmitted through the same portal.
Your office files. Your office keeps the filing, the client and the decisions.

See the construction documents service for what a package covers, or start with one project.

Construction documents and plan check in Orange County