Groundwork · San Diego, CA ·(760) 464-5105
GGroundwork
Get the sheet$39/mo · email first
City of San Diego open data
approvals_*_datasd.csvdaily · free · publicread 2026-09-16
54 columns, tens of thousands of rows a year. The five we read, on 5 of this week's rows:
APPROVAL_IDAPPROVAL_STATUSGIS_ADDRESSAPPROVAL_PERMIT_HOLDERAPPROVAL_VALUATION
PMT-3428075Issued2825 Racetrack View Dr, San Diego, CAon file · 1 address 299104.00
PMT-3348331Issued14237 Bernabe Ct, San Diego, CA 92129on file · 1 address 249781.54
PMT-3406515Issued5978 Shaw Lopez Rw, San Diego, CAon file · 1 address 226470.89
PMT-3423934Issued4290 45th St, San Diego, CA 92115on file · 1 address 125840.00
PMT-3433373Issued2480 Cordero Rd, San Diego, CA 92014on file · 1 address 50752.00

THE HOLDER COLUMN — the one the whole product turns on. A company here, or a person at more than one address, and the row goes.

Every permit on this board is one of these rows. Open the same file yourself, today, without paying us.

Groundwork Field sheet
City of San DiegoRemodel / GCweek of 2026-09-16
8 owner-pulled job sites this week · 3 printed here
  1. 2825 Racetrack View Dr
    Remodel of (E) 2-story SDU along with (N) roof covering & revisions to exterior facade.…
    Remodel / GCPMT-3428075San DiegoIssued 2026-09-10$299,104
    INDIVIDUAL, ONE PROPERTY
    Owner ph.paid sheet
  2. 14237 Bernabe Ct 92129
    An addition/remodel to a one-story single dwelling unit with an attached garage and patio…
    Remodel / GCPMT-3348331San DiegoIssued 2026-09-09$249,782
    INDIVIDUAL, ONE PROPERTY
    Owner ph.paid sheet
  3. 5978 Shaw Lopez Rw
    Combination Building Permit; For the proposed Remodel/Addition to an existing two-story SFR…
    Remodel / GCPMT-3406515San DiegoIssued 2026-09-10$226,471
    INDIVIDUAL, ONE PROPERTY
    Owner ph.paid sheet

INDIVIDUAL, ONE PROPERTY — each line is an individual, one property, no contractor named on the permit.

Holder on file — name on the paid sheet. Quote any permit number to SD Development Services and read the same record we did.

Groundwork Check sheet
City of San DiegoRemodel / GCweek of 2026-09-16
Read any number below to SD Development Services. They pull the same record we did.
  1. PMT-3428075
    2825 Racetrack View DrSan DiegoIssued 2026-09-10
    → Development Services→ map→ street view
  2. PMT-3348331
    14237 Bernabe Ct 92129San DiegoIssued 2026-09-09
    → Development Services→ map→ street view
  3. PMT-3406515
    5978 Shaw Lopez RwSan DiegoIssued 2026-09-10
    → Development Services→ map→ street view

VERIFIABLE FIRST — a lead product that cannot be checked is indistinguishable from a made-up one.

Every line on the paid sheet carries the number, a map link and, where the City recorded coordinates, a street view.

How this week's sheet is built — the file, the filter, the claim we refuse to make, and how to check every line yourself.

the file,the sheet.

The City of San Diego posts every permit it approves as a daily CSV — about 18MB, 54 columns, tens of thousands of rows a year, free and public. Nobody opens it. Every Monday we do, and keep only the rows that mean a job is about to start.

Nothing is scraped off anybody's website. The City publishes the file and we download the same one you can. Open it yourself, today, without paying us.

How it works

Published by the City and refreshed daily. Every row carries a permit number, a status, a scope description and an address; about 96% carry coordinates. Two files a year — permits created and permits issued — read together, so a filing counts once whichever file it lands in first.

The columns we read

APPROVAL_ID, APPROVAL_STATUS, APPROVAL_SCOPE, GIS_ADDRESS, APPROVAL_PERMIT_HOLDER, APPROVAL_VALUATION, GIS_LATITUDE / GIS_LONGITUDE. The holder column is the one the whole product turns on.

The City's open data →

We keep only the rows that mean a job is about to start. Four rules, and the third one is the business.

How it works

Early stage only — Opened and Issued, never Inspection Followup or Approved Upon Final Payment; that work is underway and you are too late. Held by a person, not a company. At exactly one address across the year's file: permit runners and contractors file under personal-looking names — one outfit sat at 529 separate addresses, another at 168 — and every genuine owner sits at one. Then matched to your trade by scope and permit type, deduped by address, because one project files a row per discipline.

The correction we made

Before the one-address rule, 60–76% of what we delivered was not owner-pulled. We found it, we fixed it, and the weekly numbers dropped by more than half. What is on this site is the number after the fix: 13 job sites in the City this week.

Each line is an individual, one property, no contractor named on the permit. Checkable, because the holder's name is in the public record.

How it works

What we will not say is "no contractor is on the job yet". A permit does not tell you that. A homeowner may already have someone lined up, or be doing the work themselves. We can tell you nobody is named on the filing, which is a different and smaller claim, and it is the true one.

Where the claim stops

Not every jurisdiction publishes who pulled the permit. Carlsbad, Santee, El Cajon, Imperial Beach, Chula Vista, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Escondido, San Marcos, Huntington Beach, Brea, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, La Habra, Tustin, Newport Beach, Westminster and Yorba Linda publish no permit holder, so there the lines are all new permits, never owner-pulled. Anaheim records an owner-builder flag and no name, so the most a line there can say is that the city recorded the owner as the builder and no contractor is named on the permit — never "an individual".

Which city is which →

Ranked best-first and sent every Monday. Ranking decides what you read first; it never decides what you are allowed to see.

How it works

Residential work ranks above commercial, valuation orders within each band, and recency breaks ties. Commercial is demoted rather than dropped — a GC may want it. You get every job that qualified for your trade and region, in that order. Some weeks that is a long list and some weeks it is short, and the email says which.

The order, top to bottom

Residential before commercial. Higher valuation first, inside each band. Most recently filed breaks the tie. Nothing is cut — every job that qualified is on the paid sheet, and the free sheet is three of the same lines.

You can check any line before you trust us. A lead product that cannot be checked is indistinguishable from a made-up one.

How it works

Read the permit number to SD Development Services and they will pull up the same record we did. Or search the City's own file — the open-data portal is the source we read, and there is nothing between it and your inbox except the filters above. Contractors have been burned enough to assume the worst; this is how you do not have to.

On the sheet

Every line ships with a map link and, where the City recorded coordinates, a street view. The permit number is on the free sheet too, so the three you get for nothing can be checked exactly the way the paid ones can.

SD Development Services → The City's open data →

check it first.

06The price

$39 a month, and one click to stop.

One trade, on one side of the city or citywide, every job that qualifies. An average Angi lead alone is $29.07. Cancel in one click from any receipt — no phone call, no retention script.

Angi & Thumbtack

  • The average Angi pro pays about $401 a month in lead fees alone — nearer $618 all in
  • That works out at $29.07 an Angi lead. Neither company publishes a rate card
  • Billed per lead, so your busiest month is your most expensive one
  • It is a form fill: 1,879 BBB complaints against Angi Inc in three years, 921 against Thumbtack

Groundwork

  • $39/mo flat — under a tenth of that $401, and it does not move when the week is busy
  • No per-lead charge, no membership fee, no contract
  • Every qualifying job for your trade and region — you decide which are worth bidding
  • It is a building permit with no contractor named on it — filed, dated and verifiable by number

Angi figures here are our own arithmetic on Angi Inc's annual filing (Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025), not prices Angi quotes — Angi publishes no rate card. US Lead revenue $587.05M ÷ 20,195,000 Leads = $29.07 a lead; ÷ 122,000 average monthly active pros = about $401 a month per pro on leads, $618 counting all of Angi's US revenue per pro. BBB complaint counts read 12 August 2026.

Full pricing →
See it first

See it before you read any more about it.

Three real owner-pulled permits land in your inbox on Monday. Check them against the City yourself, then decide whether the rest is worth $39.

Who you're buying from
Chad Vasquez, who runs Groundwork

Chad Vasquez · Groundwork, a Prompt Flow LLC company · San Diego, CA

(760) 464-5105 · chad@promptflowbusiness.com

A small San Diego operation, not a lead-gen call centre. Day job's a fireman; this is the side business. You can phone the number above and I will pick up. Cancel anytime in one click — no retention script, no website upsell. Billing is Stripe; the Monday email goes out through Resend.

Free · No card
3 jobs by email. No card.
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