El Segundo offers businesses a streamlined permitting process that includes a range of plan review services that are intended to provide the necessary level of service that best meets customer's expectations.  Planning and Building Safety staff serves as the customer advocate; the person that assists customers in completing the development process.  In El Segundo, customers are not required to submit plans to each of the departments separately.  Plans are submitted through a single point of contact,  Planning and Building Safety.  Several departments are involved in the plan check and approval process, but one permit is issued with approvals from all of the departments.

Along with over-the-counter and regular plan check, El Segundo offers two additional types of plan check services.

     Appointment Plan Check (APC) process involves scheduling an appointment to review plans with the City's development team made up of representatives of all the City departments involved in the development review process.  The concept is to bring the City to the customer rather than the traditional approach of having the customer navigate through the organization by going from department to department, waiting an unknown period of time for feedback and being uncertain of the status.  During the appointment, City staff benefits by being able to coordinate requirements and promote cross-training.  Customers benefit by being able to hear from all of the department, all at once, which removes possibilities of conflicting corrections between departments, as well as, being able to make necessary changes to the plans.

Accelerate Plan Check offers customers an optional expedited plan check service.  This process is conducted by staff after regular business hours and requires additional fees.  With accelerated plan check, staff from each of the departments complete their plan checks in 2 to 3 weeks.

Additionally, the City of El Segundo allows concurrent processing of planning entitlements and plan check review which can reduce processing time by as much as 50%. Furthermore, the City provides one-day inspection service for all projects under construction and even provides night and weekend inspection service if needed for very large-scale, time-sensitive projects.