Laguna Beach city officials are slated to lean on artificial intelligence during a 12-month pilot program to help streamline the development process after an internal review showed some improvement in the permitting process.
The city is contracting with CrossBeam for a total cost of $99,600 to develop AI-assisted tools for permit application screening, preliminary building and zoning plan review and customer service for development projects within the city, according to the staff report.
During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Director of Community Development Matthew Schneider said plan sets submitted by developers are typically 30 to 50 sheets long.
“It’s really critical that all the information remain consistent throughout the entire document, and that’s time consuming to continually check setbacks and elevations on every single sheet,” Schneider said. “This is something that a technology like AI can do instantaneous[ly].”
According to Schneider, it can take city staff up to eight hours to do a full plan check on a property, especially if it’s historic, without AI.
Schneider said that the city is looking for 85% accuracy when it comes to zoning and building plan checks.
“Laguna is so unique that it would be very difficult to achieve something higher than that,” Schneider said. “There is a level of human analysis that always has to take place, so we will be monitoring that.”
Laguna Beach’s AI planning check comes as cities throughout Orange County and California scramble to meet state-mandated housing goals by zoning for and approving housing developments while also keeping a housing development plan up to state standards.
[Read: California Sues Costa Mesa Over Lack of ‘Compliant’ Housing Plan]
Councilmember Alex Rounaghi said there are about 300 items to check in a plan set.
The AI rollout follows a planning division update on process improvements from August 2024 through July 26, 2026.
The report showed that the average zoning plan check queue has declined from 57 days to 13 days, and the planning division’s overall workload remained relatively stable over the past year, averaging 266 zoning plan check applications over a rolling 12-month period.
Furthermore, the average timeline between initial zoning plan check and the issuing of a building permit decreased from 17 months based in July 2025 to a little over 12 months from April to July 2026.
CrossBeam combines Anthropic’s Claude large language model with a software designed for community development operations, according to the staff report. It is also the exclusive delivery of its proprietary AI platform.
The CrossBeam team will work directly alongside city community development staff throughout the pilot program in collaboration to continuously improve functionality in accordance with Laguna Beach’s permitting process, according to the staff report.
According to Schneider, the program is iterative, and it will be customized to Laguna Beach. It will also be fully functional in the upcoming weeks.
Schneider said the city was able to run several project applications through the program’s system which had good results and that the city’s cybersecurity team has approved the system.
“It looks like it has a really strong potential to gain a lot of efficiency,” Schneider said. “It’s going to help with our online submittals, plan checking, as well as an internal chatbot that will help staff when they are responding to customers.”
Additionally, the AI program will be scanning all online permits for submission requirements. The program is slated to automatically identify missing documents and deficiencies in online permit applications, according to the staff report.
Schneider said the city receives many incomplete online permit applications, causing staff about two hours of back and forth with the applicant.
“We’re going to be monitoring [the AI scanning], and we’re looking to cut that down substantially,” Schneider said.
Michael Brown, the founder of CrossBeam, said the mission of CrossBeam was to help solve the California housing crisis, and that they have found their partner who shares their vision during public comment.
“We’d be honored to build the most innovative plan check process in California and in the nation, right here in Laguna Beach,” Brown said.
If the program is successful, Schneider said that the city could incorporate the program cost into planning fees.
During the meeting, Rounaghi said that he is convinced there is no better use for AI as a pre-check in cases like Laguna Beach, using AI as an assisting tool to speed up development project permit processing.
“There is no better use case in city government than the plan check process because of how tedious it is, so I think this is just going to be a win for our staff, a win for residents and [it will] improve our ability to provide quality service in the most cost effective way.”
Lauren Contreras is a Voice of OC intern. You can reach her at laurencontreras615@gmail.com.
