SF Building Permit Scraper

Scrape the official San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI) building permit dataset. Search or filter San Francisco building permits by permit type, status, neighborhood, supervisor district, zip code, use, construction type, estimated cost, or filed/issued date — or look up permits by permit number, property address, or assessor block & lot. Powered by the public SF Open Data (Socrata) API. No login, no API key, no proxy required.

What this actor does

• Four modes: search (filter/browse), byPermitNumber (exact permit lookup), byAddress (lookup by street number + street name), byBlockLot (lookup by assessor's block & lot)
• Rich filters: permit type, status, neighborhood, supervisor district, zip code, existing/proposed use, existing/proposed construction type, estimated-cost range, filed-date range, issued-date range, description keyword, geographic radius around a lat/lon point
• Special-project toggles: ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit), fire-only permit, site permit, structural notification, voluntary soft-story seismic retrofit, reroofing
• Full-text search across the permit's work description and other text fields
• Every permit application — one record per permit, spanning new construction, alterations/repairs, demolitions, signs, grading, and more
• Geo data — latitude/longitude, neighborhood, supervisor district, zip code, block/lot
• Empty fields are omitted — a permit missing a completion date or a construction-type code simply has no such field, never a placeholder

Output per permit record

• permitNumber — DBI permit number (usually one row per permit, but DBI's own dataset occasionally publishes more than one row for the same permit number — e.g. a permit renewal alongside its original record; rowId is the actual unique key)
• permitType, permitTypeDefinition — DBI permit classification code and definition
• status, statusDate — current status and when it was last set
• filedDate, issuedDate, completedDate, approvedDate, firstConstructionDocumentDate, permitCreationDate, lastPermitActivityDate
• description — free-text work description
• streetNumber, streetNumberSuffix, streetName, streetSuffix, unit, unitSuffix, fullAddress
• city, state — always San Francisco, CA
• block, lot, blockLot — assessor parcel identifiers
• neighborhood — SF planning analysis neighborhood
• supervisorDistrict — Board of Supervisors district (1-11)
• zipcode
• latitude, longitude
• numberOfExistingStories, numberOfProposedStories
• estimatedCost, revisedCost (USD)
• existingUse, existingUnits, proposedUse, proposedUnits
• plansets
• existingOccupancy, proposedOccupancy — building-code occupancy classification
• existingConstructionType, existingConstructionTypeDescription, proposedConstructionType, proposedConstructionTypeDescription
• structuralNotification, voluntarySoftStoryRetrofit, fireOnlyPermit, sitePermit, adu, primaryAddressFlag, reroof — booleans, only present when the flag applies
• tidfCompliance — Transportation Impact Development Fee compliance code (Y/R/P/E)
• applicationSubmissionMethod
• pointSource — how the property's geolocation point was derived
• recordId — DBI's internal record identifier (links related permit applications)
• dataAsOf — when SF Open Data last refreshed this row
• rowId — stable Socrata row identifier
• sourceUrl — direct link to this exact record on SF's open-data API
• recordType: "buildingPermit", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search (filter/browse), byPermitNumber, byAddress, or byBlockLot
searchQuery	string	–	Full-text search across description/address text fields (mode=search)
descriptionKeyword	string	–	Case-insensitive substring match on the work description
permitNumbers	array	–	Exact permit numbers to fetch (mode=byPermitNumber)
streetNumber / streetName	string	–	Street number + name for an address lookup (mode=byAddress)
streetSuffix / unit	string	–	Optional narrowing for an address lookup (mode=byAddress)
block / lot	string	–	Assessor block & lot for a parcel lookup (mode=byBlockLot)
permitType	string	any	One of 9 DBI permit types (new construction, alterations, demolitions, signs, etc.)
status	string	any	One of 23 current permit statuses (issued, complete, expired, filed, etc.)
neighborhood	string	any	One of 41 SF analysis neighborhoods
supervisorDistrict	string	any	Board of Supervisors district 1-11
zipcode	string	any	One of 30 SF zip codes
existingUse / proposedUse	string	any	One of 99 standardized property-use categories
existingConstructionType / proposedConstructionType	string	any	Building-code construction-type classification
filedDateFrom / filedDateTo	string	–	ISO date range (YYYY-MM-DD) on the filed date
issuedDateFrom / issuedDateTo	string	–	ISO date range (YYYY-MM-DD) on the issued date
minEstimatedCost / maxEstimatedCost	number	–	Estimated construction cost bounds (USD, 0–1,000,000,000)
nearLatitude / nearLongitude	number	–	Only include permits within nearRadiusMeters of this point (mode=search)
nearRadiusMeters	number	500	Radius in meters for the geographic filter (1–5000); only applies when both lat/lon are set
aduOnly	boolean	false	Only include Accessory Dwelling Unit permits
fireOnlyPermitOnly	boolean	false	Only include fire-department-only permits
sitePermitOnly	boolean	false	Only include site permits (large multi-phase projects)
structuralNotificationOnly	boolean	false	Only include permits with a structural notification
voluntarySoftStoryRetrofitOnly	boolean	false	Only include voluntary soft-story seismic retrofit permits
reroofOnly	boolean	false	Only include reroofing permits
sortBy	string	filedDateDesc	Sort order — filed date, issued date, status date, or estimated cost
appToken	string	–	Optional free Socrata app token for higher rate limits
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap on emitted records (1–10000)

Example: browse the latest filed permits

{
  "mode": "search",
  "sortBy": "filedDateDesc",
  "maxItems": 20
}

Example: lookup by permit number

{
  "mode": "byPermitNumber",
  "permitNumbers": ["201903226060"]
}

Example: all permits at a specific address

{
  "mode": "byAddress",
  "streetNumber": "760",
  "streetName": "14th",
  "streetSuffix": "St"
}

Example: all permits on a specific assessor parcel

{
  "mode": "byBlockLot",
  "block": "3537",
  "lot": "027"
}

Example: high-value new-construction permits in a neighborhood

{
  "mode": "search",
  "permitType": "1",
  "neighborhood": "South of Market",
  "minEstimatedCost": 500000,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: voluntary soft-story seismic retrofit permits

{
  "mode": "search",
  "voluntarySoftStoryRetrofitOnly": true,
  "maxItems": 200
}

Example: ADU permits filed in 2024

{
  "mode": "search",
  "aduOnly": true,
  "filedDateFrom": "2024-01-01",
  "filedDateTo": "2024-12-31",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Example: permits within 500m of a specific point (e.g. Civic Center)

{
  "mode": "search",
  "nearLatitude": 37.7793,
  "nearLongitude": -122.4193,
  "nearRadiusMeters": 500,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Use cases

• Real estate research — check permit history, open work, and estimated construction cost for a property before buying or renting
• Contractor / architect prospecting — find recent new-construction or alteration permits by neighborhood, use type, or cost range
• Seismic-safety tracking — monitor voluntary soft-story retrofit uptake across the city
• ADU market research — track Accessory Dwelling Unit permit volume and location trends
• Journalism & policy research — investigate construction trends, demolition activity, or permit-processing timelines
• Academic research — bulk-export permit data for urban-planning or housing studies

FAQ

What is the data source? The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection's "Building Permits" dataset, published on SF Open Data (Socrata, dataset ID i98e-djp9) and refreshed regularly by the city.

Is this affiliated with the City and County of San Francisco or DBI? No. This is an independent, third-party actor built on SF's public open-data API.

Why does the actor use data.sfgov.org instead of sfdbi.org? sfdbi.org is a legacy domain that now redirects to www.sf.gov, which sits behind a WAF challenge that blocks direct automated access. The DBI's actual permit records are published in full by the city on its official open-data platform, data.sfgov.org — the same underlying dataset that powers SF DBI's public permit lookups — so this actor reads directly from that authoritative source instead.

What does estimatedCost vs revisedCost mean? estimatedCost is the cost declared at filing time; revisedCost reflects any cost revision made during plan review or construction. When no revision was recorded, only estimatedCost appears.

What does tidfCompliance mean? The Transportation Sustainability/Impact Development Fee compliance code: Y (paid/compliant), R (reduced), P (pending), or E (exempt). Only present when DBI recorded a value.

Why do some construction-type fields show unusual values like V, B, or III instead of 1–5? This mirrors data-entry inconsistencies present in the source dataset itself — DBI sometimes records construction type using building-code Roman-numeral/letter designations instead of the standard numeric 1–5 codes. The actor passes through whatever value DBI's system recorded rather than guessing a normalization.

Why do some permits have no structuralNotification/voluntarySoftStoryRetrofit/fireOnlyPermit/sitePermit/reroof field? These are opt-in flags DBI only records as Y when they apply; when a permit doesn't carry the flag, the field is omitted rather than shown as false.

How does the address lookup (byAddress) work? Supply streetNumber and streetName (required together); optionally add streetSuffix and/or unit to narrow the match further. Matching on streetName is case-insensitive and exact (not fuzzy), matching DBI's own address indexing.

How fresh is the data? SF Open Data refreshes this dataset regularly (the city notes that as of December 2024 it publishes new/changed rows incrementally). Each record includes a dataAsOf field showing when it was last synced upstream from DBI's permit-tracking system.

Are there rate limits? The Socrata API allows unauthenticated access with reasonable limits. Supplying a free Socrata app token (optional) raises those limits, but the actor works without one.