California Permitting Academy Grant FORECAST

California Permitting Academy Grant

FORECAST

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development
Amount: US $0
Last Updated: April 01, 2026

Summary

The California Permitting Academy aims to enhance local government efficiency in permitting processes through targeted training and technical assistance. This initiative, led by the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, will provide in-person, one-week courses for representatives from multiple local governments. Participants will gain valuable skills in streamlining permits, ensuring compliance, and implementing continuous improvement strategies. The program focuses on modernizing practices and fostering collaboration among local agencies to better support zero-emission vehicle infrastructure and clean energy projects.

Overview

Purpose The “California Permitting Academy” will provide technical assistance to local governments, helping them streamline their permitting processes and equipping their permitting teams with tools, skills, and methods for ongoing continuous improvement. The goal is to identify long-term system improvements for the permit processes.  This RFP outlines the initial structure, as outlined by GO-Biz, and the responsibilities of the academy host. Description The Governor’s Office of Business & Economic Development (GO-Biz) serves as the State of California’s primary technical assistance provider to businesses and developers in navigating California’s state and local permitting regimes. As part of this work, GO-Biz assists businesses in accessing information and resources related to permitting and regulatory compliance, provides mediation and third-party neutral facilitation to resolve conflicts between applicants and permitting and regulatory entities, and works with federal, state, regional, and local permitting and regulatory entities to exchange best practices and implement improvements to modernize permitting processes.  Over the past seven years, various units within GO-Biz have developed technical expertise and educational materials intended to help local governments with process improvements and streamlining efforts, specifically in support of zero-emission vehicles charging infrastructure and clean energy projects. The California Permitting Academy is intended to be structured as one-week intensive, in-person, training courses for representatives from up to five local governments per academy session. This academy is designed to support local governments that are committed to permit streamlining. Local governments may apply to participate in the academy and will be required to identify an executive sponsor (city manager, county administrator, chief executive, etc.) and a specific project or permitting process they want to streamline.  The local government applicant must identify a minimum of three and up to six staff members (Director of Community Development, Director of Public Works, Fire Marshall, Building Division Manager, etc.) that have responsibilities for and/or oversight of permitting processes to participate in their cohort during the academy.  Each cohort will be required to complete pre-academy surveys outlining their goals and existing permitting timelines, as well as post-academy surveys outlining their implementation efforts, updated permitting timelines and plans to instill and measure continuous improvement opportunities. The curriculum must include sessions on best practices in permit streamlining/ modernization, review of the California Permitting Guides developed by GO-Biz and other state agency entities, process mapping of the attendees' current internal procedures, and process mapping a streamlined approach. The curriculum should also include training and education to assist with compliance on new rules and laws.  Following the academy sessions, the cohorts will be provided with between one and three months of technical assistance from the academy host and GO-Biz.  GO-Biz anticipates the academy implementor hosting a minimum of six in-person academy cohorts during the contract period, rotating across Northern, Central, and Southern California.

Eligibility

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