Placer County will temporarily shut down its online building permit system, Accela Citizen Access, from January 1–4, 2026, to implement significant upgrades. The system will be unavailable for online permit submissions during this period.
According to the Placer County website, the upgrades are designed to speed up plan reviews by allowing each cycle to be routed simultaneously to all relevant county divisions. "We appreciate our customers’ patience during this scheduled outage as we make these improvements," said Placer County Building Services Manager Randall Befort, who added that the changes aim to create a more transparent and user-friendly permit process.
Further improvements include a single, consolidated comment letter for applicants, summarizing all requirements from each reviewing department. This streamlined approach aims to simplify communication and reduce confusion as part of Placer County’s effort to improve the permitting process.
The system upgrade will enable applicants to track their project status in real-time and view comments directly within the Accela portal. These improvements aim to increase transparency and provide a better, more user-friendly experience.
