It is a truism of the human condition that bad news travels much faster than good news.
So perhaps you haven’t heard about the turnaround in Mariposa County issuing building permits.
The best benchmark may be anecdotal: Paper stock.
“We’ve literally gone from 12 cases of paper a month to two,” said Mariposa County Interim Building Director Corrina Miranda.
That’s because the process for obtaining a permit has transitioned from an antiquated system developed in the 1980s to a completely digital workflow known as Tyler.
Inspections are now conducted with iPads and contractors are able to upload pictures of completed work for a sign off.
Consider some data points:
• A 42 percent reduction in fist-review turnaround, now taking seven to eight days.
• A 95 to 100 percent on-time completion rate.
• Residential permits are taking 10 to 18 days.
Measured against other counties of similar size, the building department is issuing permits 40 to 75 percent faster across all major permit categories, according to figures from the Mariposa County Building Department.
Local contractor Jon Paul Salonen, who complained two years ago to the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors about the time it was taking to get a permit, returned last week to express his gratitude for the building department.
Salonen said the turnaround from a year ago has been extraordinary.
“They’ve helped me be the best builder I can be. I felt seen by the community,” Salonen said.
In an interview with the Mariposa Gazette, Miranda gave credit to the entire department.
“We have come a long way and it was not a single person that did it. We did it as a team, and we did it every day as a team,” she said.
And yet, perceptions can linger.
“I know the talk of the town,” she said.
“From the standpoint of we’re not issuing permits, and that’s why people aren’t buying lumber, is completely erroneous.”
A housing crisis
But, there is still work to be done in restoring the county’s housing stock. More than 200 homes in Mariposa County have been lost to wildfire and severe weather since 2017. The 2022 Oak Fire alone destroyed 127 homes.
For reasons that likely have to do with the broader economy, only 18 permits were issued in 2025 for new single family homes. The seven year average was for 33 new home permits.
Mariposa County is also a more difficult place to build than surrounding counties, officials point out, because there usually aren’t available municipal services to plug into.
Road access and the hard rock geology of Mariposa County also play a role.
“When you’re looking at custom home builders, they have to have a return on investment. There are contractors building million dollar homes, but we don’t have the economy to support the people who buy those homes,” Miranda said.
Right on time: LDRD
Planning officials are hoping a new building code that went into effect this month, know as California Title 25, or Limited Density Owner Built Rural Dwelling (LDRD), could be a game changer in making home construction more affordable.
There are already five homes in the permitting process.
The program is for owner-built and owner occupied homes and do not require solar or sprinklers, which can easily add more than $25,000 to the cost of a new home in California.
“I’ve had two or three emails already with people who said this is the only way I’ll be able to build on my parcel,” Miranda said.
“Hopefully, we’ll see a real jump in residential building soon.”
LDRD is only for rural parcels and are not allowed in parts of Mariposa County that have adopted local area plans.
The buildings must still meet basic health, safety and structural standards, including the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) fire standards.
The property will be deed restricted so it could not be used as a short-term rental in the future unless it is brought up to California’s normal building standards, known as Title 24.
Under LDRD there may also be an opportunity to grandfather in homes that were not built to Title 24 standards.
“This is big when you have lots of illegal structures” in the county, Miranda said.
“Every day we still get people who say, ‘I bought it this way.’”
During a presentation to the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors on March 10, the LDRD plan got an enthusiastic reception.
Board chair Danette Toso said she appreciated the common sense approach.
“Hearing you say affordable and efficient is music to our ears,” Toso said.
Supervisor Shannon Poe said he was intrigued by the ability to use alternative building supplies, like native lumber from a saw mill.
Miranda said the county is looking into various material standards.
The building department is still in the process of developing information materials for those interested in LDRD that speaks to them in layman’s terms.
There is also a study underway to see if there is a way to bring down the cost of permit fees, which would require board approval.
Miranda told the supervisors she sees LDRD as a “community project, not just a building project.”
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