CrossBeam Permits does not publish an agency price list; each agency’s price is scoped to its permit volume, review lanes and setup, and the one public figure is the City of Laguna Beach’s: its staff report lists the cost of its 12-month agreement as $99,600.
How is an agency engagement scoped?
We scope with the agency, not from a rate card. The things that drive scope are:
- Review lanes. Which of applicant pre-check, intake screening, building plan check, planning plan check, backcheck and staff Q&A the agency wants.
- Permit types and volume. Which permit types go through the tool, and roughly how many a year.
- Setup. The local amendments, checklists, standard comments, letter formats and forms we load, and whether the agency wants a public-facing pre-check under its own name.
- Term. Many agencies start with a fixed term, such as 12 months, with goals measured from the agency’s own permit records.
What did Laguna Beach’s agreement look like?
These are the City of Laguna Beach’s figures and terms, from its own documents:
| Item | City of Laguna Beach |
|---|---|
| Council action | August 4, 2026, approved 5 to 0 |
| Term | 12 months from contract execution |
| Cost | $99,600 (staff report); authorized not to exceed $100,000 |
| Funding | $150,000 the Council included in the Community Development Department’s FY 2026-27 operating budget to evaluate and implement AI technologies |
| Procurement path | Sole source professional services agreement under the City’s purchasing ordinance |
| Scope | Application screening, building and zoning plan check, permit status and information assistant |
| Security | The City’s Information Technology Department completed a cybersecurity review |
Each agency’s scope and price differ. Laguna Beach’s figure is shown because it is public, not as a standard price. Laguna Beach staff report
How do agencies usually buy a tool like this?
Agencies use the purchasing paths their own codes allow. Common ones include:
- A professional services agreement within the City Manager’s or department’s signing authority.
- Council or board approval of an agreement, as in Laguna Beach.
- Sole source, where the agency’s purchasing ordinance allows it and staff make the required findings. Laguna Beach’s staff report cites its municipal code’s sole source provisions.
- A competitive solicitation (RFP or RFQ), where the agency’s rules call for one.
Your purchasing officer and counsel decide which path applies.
How do cities and counties fund permit technology?
In California, fees for building permits, building inspections, zoning and planning services may not exceed the estimated reasonable cost of providing the service (Gov. Code §66014(a)). Many agencies set a technology fee or surcharge on permit fees in their adopted fee schedule to cover permitting systems and related technology. For example, the City of Riverside’s FY 2026/27 schedule adds a technology fee of 4% of the permit fee and 4% of the plan check fee.
Whether a review tool can be funded from permit fees, a technology surcharge or the general fund is a decision for the agency’s finance staff, fee consultant and counsel. Agencies also use budget set aside for technology or efficiency projects, as Laguna Beach did, or fund an applicant-facing program directly, as Buena Park does for its free pre-check.
What security and data questions should we ask, and what are the answers?
These answers come from the CrossBeam Permits AI FactSheet, which follows the GovAI Coalition format. Where the FactSheet and the Privacy Policy both speak to a topic, the Privacy Policy governs.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who makes the decisions? | Agency staff. CrossBeam Permits drafts; it issues no permits and makes no binding determination. |
| Do you train AI models on our data? | No. Submitted materials are used only to review that application. AI providers are contractually barred from using them for their own training. |
| Which AI providers do you use? | Commercial models from Anthropic and Google (Gemini) through their paid U.S. API services. Model versions are disclosed to a contracting agency under NDA. |
| Where is data stored? | In the United States: compute on Google Cloud (us-central1), the primary database on Supabase/AWS (us-east-1), and the web application on Vercel. |
| How is data protected? | TLS in transit, AES-256 at rest, and PostgreSQL row-level security that isolates each agency’s data at the database layer. |
| How do staff sign in? | Single sign-on through the agency’s Google or Microsoft (Azure AD) identity provider, so the agency’s own MFA policy applies. Role-based access. |
| How long do you keep submitted plans? | By default, 180 days after upload. The agency can set its own period, and holds suspend deletion. On termination, materials are returned or deleted at the agency’s election. |
| What is your role under California privacy law? | CrossBeam Permits acts as the agency’s service provider under the CCPA. |
| What if there is a breach? | Notice to the agency within 72 hours of a confirmed breach, or sooner if the agreement says so. |
| Do you carry insurance? | Technology errors and omissions and cyber liability coverage, including affirmative AI coverage. A certificate is available on request. |
| Are you SOC 2 certified? | The platforms CrossBeam Permits runs on are SOC 2 certified (Google Cloud, Supabase, Vercel, Cloudflare). CrossBeam Permits applies its own controls on top. |
| Will you complete our questionnaire? | Yes: the GovAI Coalition template, the agency’s own AI questionnaire, CAIQ or HECVAT, on request. |
How do we start?
Tell us about your counter: your permit types, rough annual volume, which lanes you want, and your purchasing path. We will come back with a scoped proposal. See how agencies get started.
Sources
Facts and sources checked October 30, 2026.
- City of Laguna Beach, staff report for Consent Calendar Item 17, August 4, 2026 (cost, funding, sole source basis, IT security review) (accessed 2026-10-30)
- City of Laguna Beach, City Council Meeting Recap (minutes), August 4, 2026, Item 17 (accessed 2026-10-30)
- City of Laguna Beach, Scope of Work attachment to Item 17, August 4, 2026 (accessed 2026-10-30)
- California Government Code §66014 (accessed 2026-10-30)
- City of Riverside, Schedule of Fees and Charges, Fiscal Year 2026/27, “Surcharges,” fee code 2602 (accessed 2026-10-30)
- City of Buena Park, “Buena Park Plan PreCheck” program page (“Paid for by the City of Buena Park”) (accessed 2026-10-30)
- CrossBeam Permits AI FactSheet v1.1, sections 3, 4, 14, 15 and 16 (accessed 2026-10-30)
CrossBeam Permits is operated by Onboard Dot AI LLC, Huntington Beach, California. Not affiliated with Crossbeam, the partner-ecosystem software company at crossbeam.com.