Menlo Park Remodel Permits: City Streets vs County Streets

Step one: city or county?

The City of Menlo Park issues permits only inside city limits. These areas have Menlo Park mailing addresses but are unincorporated San Mateo County:

• West Menlo Park
• Menlo Oaks
• North Fair Oaks
• Ladera
• Sequoia Tract
• Stanford Weekend Acres
• Stanford lands

To check a parcel, use the San Mateo County public map viewer: search by address or the 9-digit parcel number and turn on the unincorporated zoning layer. If county zoning appears, the county is your permit office. Menlo Park’s own GIS viewer shows the city limits. We check the parcel before we write an estimate, because the answer changes fees, review times and rules.

Inside the city: the Menlo Park Building Division

Where: 701 Laurel Street. Applications are digital only, through the city’s online portal. A kitchen remodel starts as a building pre-application; single-trade work like a water heater, panel or re-pipe can go through limited plan check, which the city says has shorter review times.

What needs a permit: Menlo Park’s 2025 code amendments narrowed the state’s finish-work exemption so that a kitchen or bath “remove and replace” meets current code, and the city’s fee schedule includes a fee for a non-structural kitchen remodel that removes and replaces cabinets. The wording of the adopted exemption is worth confirming with the city’s permit team for cabinet-only jobs. Anything involving plumbing, electrical, ventilation or walls needs a permit.

What to submit for a kitchen: a site plan, existing and proposed floor plans, electrical, mechanical and plumbing plans, structural plans if anything structural changes, Title 24 forms where required, a load calculation and a signed energy compliance form. An arborist report is needed if heritage trees are near the work.

Review time: the city does not publish a standard review time for remodels. We ask for the current queue when we apply.

Fees: in the city’s 2026 master fee schedule (building fees effective October 12, 2026), a non-structural kitchen remodel that removes and replaces cabinets is $350 plan check plus $564.48 permit, and the same scope for a bathroom is $350 plus $593.33, before state fees and the city’s technology and general plan surcharges. Larger alterations are priced from area and construction-type tables.

Inspections: booked through the city portal or the Menlo Park inspection app, as AM or PM slots of about 15 minutes per item.

The gas-appliance wiring rule

Menlo Park does not ban gas stoves, but its 2025 reach code requires a kitchen alteration that keeps or installs a gas appliance to also be wired for electric later:

• a raceway or conductors for a 240-volt, 50-amp circuit from the main panel, ending in a junction box within 3 feet of the appliance, labeled “240V ready”;
• breaker space reserved in the panel for it.

A replaced or upgraded main panel must have room for an electric range, a dryer, an EV charger, solar and heat pump water and space heating. We include this in the electrical plan so it does not surface at inspection.

The Willows and the flood zone

Streets near San Francisquito Creek, including parts of The Willows, are in a FEMA flood zone. Menlo Park Public Works treats a project as a substantial improvement when its value reaches 50% of the existing structure’s value. Work from the prior 36 months is added in, so phasing does not avoid it. Substantial improvements must meet the design flood elevation, which is the base flood elevation plus 12 inches.

For a preliminary structure value, the city uses $275 per square foot less depreciation, and it may require an appraisal. A single kitchen or bathroom almost never reaches 50%. We run the city’s worksheet on whole-house projects before you commit.

In the county: San Mateo County Planning & Building

Where: 455 County Center, 2nd floor, Redwood City, by appointment. Applications go through the county’s online permit center.

Review time: the county publishes a target of a comment letter within 30 days of application, and about 30 days for each resubmittal.

Fees: the county’s fee schedule effective April 1, 2026 charges residential alterations and kitchen and bath remodels by square foot: $6.54 per square foot non-structural and $7.74 structural, plus a filing fee of $298 for interior remodels of 500 square feet or less, or $595 above that. One older county web page still describes fees as valuation-based; the 2026 schedule is the current one.

Rules that differ from the city:

	City of Menlo Park	San Mateo County
Cabinets, counters, tile alone	Exemption narrowed; confirm before skipping a permit	Exempt
Swapping fixtures for low-flow models	Permit	Exempt
Gas appliance in a kitchen remodel	Must be pre-wired for 240V	No remodel reach code
Fire sprinklers	Set by the fire district	Required when more than 50% of floor area is altered (houses under 1,000 sq ft exempt)
Review time	Not published	30-day comment target
Fee basis	Flat fee for simple remodels, tables for larger	Per square foot

The county counts any room with more than half its wall or ceiling coverings removed as fully altered when it applies the sprinkler rule, so a whole-house remodel in West Menlo Park can trigger sprinklers where a single kitchen does not. Kitchen alterations in the county are also covered by its construction-waste recycling plan.

County inspections are booked online only, between 8:00 and 3:30, with the three-hour window posted the morning of.

Everywhere: SB 407

California’s SB 407 applies in both the city and the county: when a home built before 1994 is altered under permit, non-compliant toilets, showerheads and faucets must be replaced with water-conserving ones. Our packages use WaterSense fixtures throughout.

Rebates

Menlo Park and the surrounding county are served by WestLight Energy, the new name of Peninsula Clean Energy since July 2026, with PG&E delivering the power. WestLight’s home upgrade rebates have covered heat pump water heaters and heating, with bonus rebates for a panel upgrade; its May 2026 terms list no induction rebate. Income-qualified homeowners inside city limits may also qualify for Menlo Park’s no-cost Home Upgrade program. BayREN’s single-family rebates are closed to new applications. Rebate programs change often, so check the current terms before you plan around one.