Which permits a kitchen pulls in Santa Clarita, and where the exemptions stop

The City names the jobs it lets go ahead without a building permit, and several of them are kitchen jobs. One sentence in the same section undoes most of what homeowners read into that list.

Updated September 2026. Every rule checked at its own source, listed at the end.

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Short answer

Inside Santa Clarita city limits the City exempts counters and countertops from the building permit, and cabinets and shelving up to 8 feet in a house. That exemption reaches the building permit alone. The same code section keeps the plumbing, electrical and mechanical permits in force unless each has an exemption of its own, so a moved sink, a new circuit, a new duct run or a cut wall puts the kitchen back into permit work (Santa Clarita Building Code).

Stage 04 of 06, where this sits

The sentence that survives every exemption

Santa Clarita Municipal Code 18.02.030 amends Section 105.2 of the 2025 California Building Code and carries the City's permit exemption list. Read past the list and the same section adds a catch: the items it exempts still need their own plumbing, electrical and mechanical permits, unless those are exempted too. So an exempt countertop stays exempt while the sink under it does not (Santa Clarita Building Code, SCMC 18.02.030).

A second condition sits in the same section. An exemption is never authorization to do work in a way that violates this code or any other law or ordinance of the City, including a requirement of another City division or of another governing agency. Planning approval is the usual one a kitchen meets (Santa Clarita Building Code).

The list reaches houses. SCMC 18.11.020 applies the City's Chapter 1 amendments to Residential Code projects, and SCMC 18.11.050 sends a reader of the Residential Code back to 18.02.030 for the list itself. All of it runs on applications received on or after January 1, 2026, under Ordinance 25-5, adopted November 25, 2025. An application filed earlier stays on the 2022 codes within its own time limits (Santa Clarita Building Code).

One boundary before any of this is useful. These are City rules for addresses inside city limits, which is where Valencia, Saugus, Newhall and Canyon Country sit. Castaic and Stevenson Ranch are unincorporated Los Angeles County and their kitchens go through LA County Building and Safety instead (Santa Clarita Building Code).

Continued: check city or county by address

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Render of a building permit card taped inside a house window during a kitchen remodel. — **Render** · The card goes up before work starts.

What the City exempts, item by item

The table below is the City's own exempt work list with the kitchen items pulled out of it, plus the condition each one carries. Two of those conditions are the reason a job that looks exempt on paper still ends up at the counter (Santa Clarita Building Code).

The cabinet line needs reading twice. The City exempts garage and closet organizers, cabinets, or shelving up to 8 feet high in a Group R-3 or U building, which covers a house and a private garage. Kitchen cabinets are not named anywhere in the list, so whether the line reaches them is unsettled. Confirm a cabinet swap with the City before treating it as exempt (Santa Clarita Building Code, SCMC 18.02.030).

Tile and flooring, and the permits a heated floor or new backsplash outlets still need, are on the flooring and backsplash page.

Render of two pairs of hands lowering a speckled stone countertop onto bare cabinet boxes. — **Render** · Counters come off the building permit list.

Kitchen work on the City of Santa Clarita exempt work list, under SCMC 18.02.030 and 18.02.040, for permit applications received on or after January 1, 2026. City limits only.
Kitchen work	Building permit	Plumbing, electrical, mechanical	The condition attached
Counters and countertops	Exempt, item 9	Still required for the sink, faucet, disposal, gas line or cooktop	Materials and work must meet Chapter 8 for allowable materials, combustibility and fire performance
Cabinets and shelving up to 8 feet	Exempt, item 10	Still required for wiring, lighting, a sink, gas or a vent	Group R-3 or U only. Kitchen cabinets are not named in the list, so confirm with the City first
Tile, flooring, paint, wall coverings, trim	Exempt, item 9	Still required for anything they cover up	The same Chapter 8 condition on materials
Same kind fixture swap, sink or faucet	Exempt, 105.2.3 item 8	Exempt as well	Water conserving provisions of the Plumbing Code and CALGreen still apply
Same kind swap of an appliance, light or non commercial hood	Exempt, 105.2.3 item 9	Exempt for a cord and plug appliance	The electrical exemption covers lamps, switches, receptacle devices, sockets and cord and plug appliances, so a hard wired item may still need one
Clearing a stoppage, repairing a leak	Exempt, 105.2.3 item 10	Exempt as well	Replacing or relocating the pipe or valve itself is new work needing a permit and inspection
Non rated drywall repair up to 200 square feet	Exempt, item 5	Not applicable	Permitted work that hangs or replaces drywall needs a drywall inspection before taping

Where the exemption stops

Pipe. Clearing a stoppage or repairing a leak needs no permit. Removing and replacing a trap, or a drain, water, waste or vent pipe or valve, concealed or not, is treated as new work that needs a permit and an inspection (Santa Clarita Building Code, SCMC 18.02.040).

Wiring. Replacing a switch, a receptacle, a lamp, a socket or a breaker in kind needs no electrical permit. A new outlet, a moved outlet, a new circuit, a different breaker rating and panel work all do. The phrase doing the work there is replacement in kind, and the Building Official decides what qualifies. The City's electrical exemption reaches lamps, switches, receptacle devices, sockets and cord and plug appliances, which leaves a hard wired fixture outside it (Santa Clarita Building Code, SCMC 19.03.060).

Ducting. Swapping a non commercial hood or exhaust fan for a like item is exempt. A ducted hood where none existed, a recirculating hood changed over to ducted, or a new exhaust run is not a like type swap. The City's mechanical exemption list is open at the end, pointing to the 2025 California Mechanical Code for further exemptions, so a ventilation change is worth asking about rather than assuming either way (Santa Clarita Building Code).

Everything structural. Adding, altering, replacing or relocating piping, wiring or mechanical work, and cutting into walls or structure, are all outside the exempt repair. Work that affects public health or general safety, and any change to required egress, sit in the same sentence (Santa Clarita Building Code).

Who may draw the plan once a layout change needs one is on the layout changes page.

Continued: the code behind these rules

Render of an open kitchen wall at rough-in: new wiring and outlet boxes, copper water lines, a drain pipe and a gas valve, ready for inspection. — **Render** · Where the exemptions run out.

Render of a hand holding a steel tape measure up the side of a tall cabinet, from the floor to its top. — **Render** · The exemption is written to a height.

One permit, or one for every trade

A kitchen that moves a sink and adds circuits is touching three trades at once, and the City has a route for that. SCMC 18.02.070 adds Section 105.8, Combined Building Permits: one combined permit may cover a house remodel when one contractor holds the license for all of the work and the Building Official agrees to it. The fee covers the combined building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing and sewer fees (Santa Clarita Building Code, SCMC 18.02.070).

The route has edges. It is written for one and two family dwellings, and a multifamily building needs the Building Official's prior approval. Fire sprinklers, a sewer connection in the public right of way, and grading that needs its own development permit stay outside it (Santa Clarita Building Code).

One question the code does not answer: whether a general building contractor who brings in licensed subcontractors counts as licensed for all of the work. The section says what it says and stops there, so the answer comes from the Building Official rather than from this page (Santa Clarita Building Code).

Render of the open cabinet under a kitchen sink: a chrome drain trap, two shutoff valves and braided supply lines. — **Render** · Under the sink is where the trade permits start.

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Starting before the permit issues

SCMC 18.02.110 amends Section 109.4 of the Building Code. Begin permit required work before the permit issues and a fee of twice the permit fee is added, on top of the permit fee, and it is owed whether or not a permit ends up issuing. The Building Official may adjust it. In round terms that triples what the permits cost. It leaves the cost of the remodel alone (Santa Clarita Building Code, SCMC 18.02.110).

Parallel investigation fees sit in the City's electrical, plumbing and mechanical titles, and they can apply per trade. Beyond the money, SCMC 18.02.210 makes a violation a misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $1,000 or up to six months, with each day counted as a separate offense (Santa Clarita Building Code).

The visible half of this is the placard. Permit required work cannot start until the construction placard is posted on site, and it stays up until final approval. The card, once signed with the final approval, allows up to 10 working days of temporary occupancy. Work that needed no permit needs no placard (Santa Clarita Building Code, SCMC 18.02.150).

Work done without a permit can come up again when the house sells, and the resale and property tax page covers the seller disclosure question.

Render of a kitchen left halfway through demolition: a crowbar on the subfloor, a dust sheet and bare wall studs. — **Render** · Work that starts early can be made to wait.

How the City takes it, and what runs on a clock

Applications go through the City's eService portal or over the counter at the City of Santa Clarita Permit Center, City Hall, 23920 Valencia Blvd, Suite 140.

City Hall reviews small residential remodels over the counter when it can finish in 30 minutes or less, from 7:30 to 11:00 AM Monday to Thursday and 8:00 to 11:00 AM Friday, or by appointment. The City decides which projects qualify, complete plans are still required, and agency clearances come before the permit issues (City of Santa Clarita plan review information).

A project that misses the counter gets the City's own description of the wait: plan review can take several weeks, before corrections and before clearances. The City publishes no first review turnaround in days for a residential remodel, so a fixed number of business days from anyone else is an estimate with nothing behind it (City of Santa Clarita stop work order information) (City of Santa Clarita plan review information).

Once a permit is live, the permit holder requests every inspection on the City's 24 hour hotline, (661) 286-4097, before 2:30 p.m. one working day ahead. Some permits are scheduled online instead (City of Santa Clarita Building and Safety).

Two clocks run in the background. An application expires if no permit issues within 12 months, and the Building Official may grant 180 day extensions on a written request and a fee, with plans updated if the codes moved underneath them. The first extension is free and each one after costs $175. Separately, under state law a permit stays valid where work starts within 12 months of issuance, unless the work is abandoned (California Health and Safety Code 18938.6) (Santa Clarita Building Code, City of Santa Clarita building fee brochure).

Continued: where this lands in the remodel calendar

Render of two hands flattening a rolled floor plan drawing across a plain public service counter. — **Render** · Plans go across a public counter.

Next in the sequence

The four permit questions

Our job is cabinets, counters and a backsplash with nothing moved. What does the City need?

On the City's own list, the counters, the backsplash tile and the finish work are exempt from the building permit as long as the materials meet the Chapter 8 rules on combustibility and fire performance. The cabinets are the open question, because the City exempts cabinets and shelving up to 8 feet in a house but never names kitchen cabinets, so ask before treating them as exempt. Then check what the job touches underneath. A new sink or faucet of the same kind stays exempt; a relocated trap or supply line does not. A new outlet, a new circuit or an under cabinet light that gets hard wired brings an electrical permit. Every one of those sits in the same code section as the exemption you were relying on (Santa Clarita Building Code).

Does setting a new sink in a new countertop bring a plumbing permit?

It depends on what happens below the counter, and the City draws the line in one place. Replacing a sink or faucet with the same kind is on the exempt list, provided the fittings meet the water conserving provisions that the Plumbing Code and CALGreen carry. Removing and replacing the trap, the valves, or the drain, waste, vent or supply piping is treated as new work that needs a permit and an inspection, whether or not that pipe was hidden in the wall. The countertop itself is a separate question and it is exempt from the building permit on its own line (Santa Clarita Building Code).

Work already started and there is no permit. What happens now?

The City adds a fee of twice the permit fee on top of the permit fee, owed whether or not a permit ends up issuing, and the Building Official may adjust the figure. Investigation fees in the electrical, plumbing and mechanical titles can apply on top of that, per trade. The City code also makes the violation a misdemeanor with a fine of up to $1,000 or up to six months, and each day counts separately. The practical part is that the work still has to be inspected, and anything already covered up may have to be opened again so an inspector can see it (Santa Clarita Building Code).

Can one permit cover the whole kitchen instead of one per trade?

The City has a combined building permit for exactly that. It may cover a house remodel when one contractor holds the license for all of the work and the Building Official agrees, and its fee covers the combined building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing and sewer fees. It is written for one and two family dwellings, a multifamily building needs prior approval, and fire sprinklers, sewer connections in the public right of way and grading that needs its own development permit stay outside it. Whether a general building contractor using licensed subcontractors qualifies is not stated in the code, so that part is the Building Official's call (Santa Clarita Building Code).

Sources

Every rule on this page was read at the document that states it, in September 2026, rather than taken from another remodeling website. City rules and City fees cover addresses inside Santa Clarita city limits.