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California Permitting Academy

Grantor:
Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development
Departmental Grant ID:
0509
Portal ID:
162033
Status:
Forecasted
Opportunity Type:
  • Grant
Last Updated:
Categories:

Details

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 Requirements

Eligible Applicants:

  • Nonprofit

Must be a nonprofit organization (501c(3), c(4), and c(6)), or other community-based organizations. 
Must be located with primary operations in the State of California. 
Must have an active status with the California Secretary of State. 
Must not be presently debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, declared ineligible, or voluntarily excluded from participation in public procurement or contracting by any government department or agency. 

Eligible Geographies:

Must be located with primary operations in the State of California. 

Important Dates

The date on which the grantor expects to announce the recipient(s) of the grant.
3/16/26
The length of time during which the grant money must be utilized.
4/1/26 - 4/30/28
Anticipated Open Date
2/23/26

Funding Details

The total projected dollar amount of the grant.
$5,000,000
A single grant opportunity may represent one or many awards. Some grantors may know in advance the exact number of awards to be given. Others may indicate a range. Some may wish to and wait until the application period closes before determining how many awards to offer; in this case, a value of “Dependent” will display.
1
Grant opportunities representing multiple awards may offer awards in the same amount or in varied amounts. Some may wish to wait until the application period closes before determining per-award amounts; in this case, a value of “Dependent” will display.
$0
Certain grants require that the recipient(s) provide a letter of intent.
Yes ( see Description for details )
Certain grants require that the recipient(s) be able to fully or partially match the grant award amount with another funding source.
No
The funding source allocated to fund the grant. It may be either State or Federal (or a combination of both), and be tied to a specific piece of legislation, a proposition, or a bond number.
  • State
The manner in which the grant funding will be delivered to the awardee. Funding methods include reimbursements (where the recipient spends out-of-pocket and is reimbursed by the grantor) and advances (where the recipient spends received grant funds directly).
  • Reimbursement(s)

Funding Method Notes:

Payments will be reimbursement-based upon proof of completion of mutually agreed deliverables. Payments may be withheld if the reports are deemed incomplete or inadequate. 
Invoices shall be submitted 30 days after the quarterly period. 

How to Apply

State agencies/departments recommend you read the full grant guidelines before applying.

Resources

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