Los Angeles Building Permits Scraper

Scrape Los Angeles building permits straight from the City of Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety (LADBS) official permit dataset. Search and filter by permit type, sub-type, category, status, issuing office, zip code, street, occupancy group, valuation, or issue date — or look up specific permits by permit number, property address, contractor name, or assessor parcel (Book-Page-Parcel / AIN). HTTP-only via the public LA Open Data (Socrata) API. No auth, no proxy.

What this actor does

• Five modes: search, byPermitNumbers, byAddress, byContractor, byAssessorParcel
• Rich filters: permit type/sub-type/category, status, initiating office, street direction/suffix, occupancy group, zip codes, issue/status date range, valuation range, story count range, minimum residential units, work-description keyword, geo-radius search (lat/lng + radius)
• Full permit detail: contractor, principal, and applicant identity; construction valuation and floor area; assessor block/lot/tract; census tract; latitude/longitude
• Sortable: by issue date, status date, valuation, number of stories, or residential dwelling units
• Empty fields are omitted

Output per permit

• permitNumber — LADBS PCIS permit number
• referenceOldPermit — legacy/cross-referenced permit number, if any
• status, statusDate — current permit status and the date it was last updated
• permitType, permitSubType, permitCategory — e.g. Bldg-New / 1 or 2 Family Dwelling / Plan Check
• projectNumber, eventCode, initiatingOffice
• issueDate — date the permit was issued
• addressStart, addressEnd, addressFractionStart, addressFractionEnd — street-number range covered by the permit
• streetDirection, streetName, streetSuffix, suffixDirection
• unitRangeStart, unitRangeEnd
• fullAddress, city, state, zipCode
• workDescription — free-text description of the work
• valuation — declared construction valuation (USD)
• floorAreaZoningCode, floorAreaBuildingCode — floor area (sq ft) under LA zoning / building code definitions
• residentialDwellingUnits, numberOfStories
• contractorBusinessName, contractorAddress, contractorCity, contractorState
• licenseType, licenseNumber, licenseExpirationDate
• principalFirstName, principalMiddleName, principalLastName
• applicantFirstName, applicantLastName, applicantBusinessName, applicantAddress1, applicantAddress2, applicantAddress3
• zone, occupancy, censusTract
• assessorBook, assessorPage, assessorParcel, tract, block, lot
• latitude, longitude
• sourceUrl — public API query URL that resolves this exact permit record
• recordType: "buildingPermit", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search / byPermitNumbers / byAddress / byContractor / byAssessorParcel
permitNumbers	array	–	Exact PCIS permit numbers (mode=byPermitNumbers)
streetNumber	string	–	Building street number (mode=byAddress, optional)
streetName	string	–	Street name — exact in byAddress, substring filter in search
streetDirection	string	–	N / S / E / W
streetSuffix	string	–	e.g. AVE, ST, BLVD
contractorName	string	–	Contractor business name — exact in byContractor, substring filter in search
assessorBook / assessorPage / assessorParcel	string	–	LA County Assessor's Identification Number (AIN) components — exact match (mode=byAssessorParcel, all three required)
workDescriptionKeyword	string	–	Substring match on the work description
permitType	string	–	Bldg-New / Bldg-Addition / Bldg-Alter/Repair
permitSubType	string	–	1 or 2 Family Dwelling / Apartment / Commercial
permitCategory	string	–	Plan Check / No Plan Check
status	string	–	Current permit status (27 possible values)
initiatingOffice	string	–	LADBS district office
occupancy	string	–	Building-code occupancy group (25 possible values, e.g. R3 Occ. Group). Only populated on a minority of permits.
zipCodes	array	–	One or more 5-digit zip codes
issueDateFrom / issueDateTo	string	–	Issue-date range (YYYY-MM-DD)
statusDateFrom / statusDateTo	string	–	Status-date range (YYYY-MM-DD)
minValuation / maxValuation	number	–	Declared construction valuation range (USD)
minStories / maxStories	integer	–	Number-of-stories range
minResidentialUnits	integer	–	Minimum residential dwelling units
nearLatitude / nearLongitude	number	–	Center point for a geo-radius search. Both must be set together.
radiusMeters	number	500	Radius (in meters) around nearLatitude/nearLongitude. Only used when both coordinates are set.
sortBy	string	issueDateDesc	Sort order — issue date / status date / valuation / number of stories / residential units, each asc or desc
appToken	string	–	Optional free Socrata app token to raise rate limits
maxItems	integer	50	Hard cap on emitted records (1–10000)

Example: recent new-construction permits in a zip code

{
  "mode": "search",
  "permitType": "Bldg-New",
  "zipCodes": ["90047"],
  "sortBy": "issueDateDesc",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: lookup by permit number

{
  "mode": "byPermitNumbers",
  "permitNumbers": ["20010-30000-00390", "19010-20000-04796"]
}

Example: permits at a specific address

{
  "mode": "byAddress",
  "streetNumber": "6500",
  "streetName": "SEABLUFF",
  "streetSuffix": "DR"
}

Example: all permits for a contractor

{
  "mode": "byContractor",
  "contractorName": "OWNER-BUILDER",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: lookup by assessor parcel (Book-Page-Parcel / AIN)

{
  "mode": "byAssessorParcel",
  "assessorBook": "2405",
  "assessorPage": "003",
  "assessorParcel": "032"
}

Example: high-value apartment permits issued in a date range

{
  "mode": "search",
  "permitSubType": "Apartment",
  "issueDateFrom": "2022-01-01",
  "issueDateTo": "2022-12-31",
  "minValuation": 500000,
  "sortBy": "valuationDesc"
}

Example: permits within 500m of a point (downtown LA)

{
  "mode": "search",
  "nearLatitude": 34.0522,
  "nearLongitude": -118.2437,
  "radiusMeters": 500,
  "sortBy": "issueDateDesc"
}

Use cases

• Real estate research — track new construction, additions, and remodels in a neighborhood or zip code
• Contractor intelligence — pull a contractor's full LA permit history by business name
• Market analysis — trend construction valuation and permit volume over time
• Lead generation — find recently permitted projects for suppliers, insurers, or service providers
• Compliance / due diligence — verify a property's permit history and current permit status before a transaction

FAQ

What is the data source? The City of Los Angeles Open Data portal (data.lacity.org), specifically the "LA Building Permits" dataset (Socrata id xnhu-aczu) published by the LA Department of Building & Safety.

Is this affiliated with the City of Los Angeles? No — this is a third-party actor that reads the City's public open-data API.

How fresh is the data? The source dataset is refreshed periodically by LADBS; this actor always queries the live API, so results reflect whatever is currently published.

Are there rate limits? The public API allows a reasonable number of requests without a token. If you scrape large volumes regularly, you can supply a free Socrata appToken to raise your rate limit.

Why do some permits have the same permit number but different addresses? A small number of multi-parcel or multi-building projects in the source data share the same PCIS permit number across rows (e.g. Building A/B of the same project). Each row is still emitted as its own record.

Why are some fields missing on certain permits? LADBS does not populate every field for every permit (e.g. occupancy and residentialDwellingUnits are rarely filled in for commercial-alteration permits). The source data also uses placeholders like - or NA for "not provided" on some fields (e.g. applicant/principal names, contractor address); the actor omits the field on that row rather than returning the placeholder text. Empty fields are omitted rather than returned as null.

Why aren't contractorState and licenseType available as filter dropdowns? Both are free-text in the source data with inconsistent values (e.g. license class recorded as B, b, 01B, or C39 for what should be the same class; state recorded with non-standard codes). Rather than offer an inaccurate dropdown, they remain available as plain output fields.

Why isn't zone available as a filter dropdown? LA zoning has 1,400+ distinct real codes (e.g. R1-1, RD1.5-1XL, R1-1-HPOZ) — too many and too granular for a stable dropdown. It's still returned as a plain output field on every permit.

Some permits show unusually high or missing numberOfStories/residentialDwellingUnits — why? The City's source data contains occasional data-entry errors on these two fields (e.g. a small addition recorded with dozens of "stories"). The actor applies sub-type-aware plausibility limits — tight for single-family-home permits, wide for apartment/commercial towers — and omits the field on the rare row that falls outside a realistic range rather than surfacing an obviously mistaken number.

Can I search near a location instead of an exact address? Yes — set nearLatitude/nearLongitude (and optionally radiusMeters, default 500m) to return only permits within that radius of a point. This combines with every other filter, including permit type, status, and date range.