There is no City of San Diego Form DS-313. The city’s Development Services form catalog does not list that number, and searches for it almost always lead to one of two documents: the city’s Stormwater Requirements Applicability Checklist, Form DS-560, which many applicants mistakenly call DS-313, or County of San Diego Form PDS-313, the Applicant’s Guide to Major Use Permits, Modifications and Minor Deviations, which belongs to a different jurisdiction and a different process entirely.1County of San Diego Planning & Development Services. PDS-313 – Applicants Guide to Major Use Permits, Modifications and Minor Deviations This article focuses on the city form most people are looking for, DS-560, and walks through it section by section. If you actually need the county’s major use permit guide, skip to the short section near the end.
What Form DS-560 Is and When You Need It
DS-560 is the checklist the City of San Diego uses to decide what stormwater documents your construction or demolition project has to produce. Every project involving ground disturbance and potential contact with stormwater needs a completed DS-560 in its permit application package.2City of San Diego. DS-560 Stormwater Requirements Applicability Checklist That includes grading, clearing, excavation, and demolition on both private land and public right-of-way, and it applies to new development and redevelopment projects requiring either a discretionary or ministerial permit.
Routine maintenance work that keeps a facility at its original line, grade, and hydraulic capacity still goes through Part A of the form, though it may qualify for lighter requirements. Projects that are neither “new development” nor “redevelopment” under the city’s Storm Water Standards Manual are not subject to permanent stormwater best management practices, but the checklist is still how you document that exemption.
Projects That Can Skip Most of the Form
A narrow group of permits does not require Parts B through F at all. If your project involves only an electrical, fire alarm, fire sprinkler, plumbing, sign, mechanical, or spa permit, you answer “Yes” to Question 4 in Part A and stop there; no construction stormwater document is needed. Small right-of-way permits also qualify: individual permits exclusively covering a water service, sewer lateral, or utility service connection, and right-of-way permits with a project footprint under 150 linear feet involving only one activity such as curb ramp or sidewalk replacement.
Gather These Numbers Before You Open the Form
Having the right figures in front of you saves trips back to the drawing board.
- Project address and Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN), which link the checklist to the correct property record.
- Total area of ground disturbance in square feet (and acres for larger sites). This determines whether you need a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan or a Water Pollution Control Plan.
- Elevation change across the project area. Whether the site has more or less than a five-foot change affects which construction document is required.
- Impervious surface calculations across the whole site: roofs, driveways, patios, parking, sidewalks. These drive the Priority Development Project determination.
- Watershed location. Know whether the site sits in an Area of Special Biological Significance (ASBS) watershed, the Los Peñasquitos Watershed, the Tijuana River Watershed, or adjacent to an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA). The city uses this to assign inspection priority and trigger stricter controls.
Part A: Construction-Phase Stormwater Requirements
Part A is where every applicant starts. Four yes-or-no questions determine which construction-phase document you must prepare.
The first and most consequential question is whether the project disturbs one acre or more of soil. Projects at or above that threshold must obtain coverage under California’s statewide Construction General Permit (CGP), administered by the State Water Resources Control Board, and prepare a full Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP).3City of San Diego. Constructing Your Project These sites fall under dual regulation and must satisfy city and state requirements simultaneously. A Waste Discharge Identification number from the state is required before the city will issue a construction permit for private development.
If the project disturbs less than one acre but still involves ground disturbance or demolition, a Water Pollution Control Plan (WPCP) is required instead. The WPCP is a lighter document that identifies the best management practices (BMPs) you will use during construction to keep sediment and pollutants out of the storm drain system.4City of San Diego. Storm Water Standards Part 2 For very small projects (less than 5,000 square feet of ground disturbance and less than a five-foot elevation change across the entire project area) a Minor WPCP using Form DS-570 may suffice.
Part B: Construction Site Priority
Part B assigns your site a priority level that controls how often city inspectors visit. The city reserves the right to adjust this priority both before and after construction begins.
Sites in an ASBS watershed receive the highest classification. Below that, projects rated Risk Level 2 or 3 under the Construction General Permit that sit outside the ASBS watershed are flagged as high priority. Medium-priority sites include Risk Level 1 projects and most WPCP-level work outside sensitive watersheds. The priority designation must appear on the DS-560 and on the construction plans.
Parts C Through F: Permanent Stormwater Requirements
The second half of the checklist shifts from the construction phase to what happens after the project is built. These parts walk you through a decision tree that determines whether permanent stormwater controls are required and how extensive they must be.
Parts C and D: Exemptions
Part C asks whether the project qualifies as maintenance or otherwise falls outside the “new development” or “redevelopment” definitions in the Storm Water Standards Manual. Projects that clear this threshold are not subject to permanent BMPs. Part D covers PDP-exempt conditions, where a project meets some development criteria but qualifies for reduced requirements.
Part E: Priority Development Project Determination
Part E catches the most applicants off guard. It determines whether your project is a Priority Development Project (PDP), which triggers the strictest permanent stormwater controls including pollutant-reduction BMPs, hydromodification management, and potentially a full Storm Water Quality Management Plan (SWQMP). The thresholds depend on what you are building and how much impervious surface the project creates or replaces:5City of San Diego. Priority Development Project Storm Water Quality Management Plan
- General new development: 10,000 square feet or more of impervious surface across the project site (commercial, industrial, residential, mixed-use, or public).
- Redevelopment: 5,000 square feet or more of impervious surface created or replaced on a site that already has 10,000 square feet or more of impervious coverage.
- Restaurants: 5,000 square feet or more of impervious surface created or replaced.
- Hillside development: 5,000 square feet or more of impervious surface created or replaced, with grading on any natural slope of 25 percent or steeper.
- Parking lots: 5,000 square feet or more of impervious surface created or replaced.
- Streets, roads, and driveways: 5,000 square feet or more of impervious surface created or replaced.
- Projects near Environmentally Sensitive Areas: 2,500 square feet of impervious surface created or replaced that discharges directly to an ESA.
- Retail gasoline outlets: 5,000 square feet or more of impervious surface, or a projected average daily traffic of 100 or more vehicles.
- Automotive repair shops: 5,000 square feet or more of impervious surface created or replaced.
The ESA threshold is half the size of most other categories. If your site is anywhere near a waterway, lagoon, or habitat area, check early whether it is classified as an ESA, because the lower threshold has tripped up projects that assumed the standard 5,000 or 10,000-square-foot floors applied.
Part F: Category Selection
Part F pulls together the results of Parts C through E and asks you to select the category that matches your project. Options range from “not subject to permanent stormwater requirements” through Standard Development Project up to full Priority Development Project. The category you select dictates which additional forms and engineering documents the city requires alongside the DS-560.
Who Can Prepare the Supporting Documents
The DS-560 checklist itself can be completed by the applicant or project manager, but the stormwater documents it triggers (SWPPP, WPCP, or SWQMP) often require professional involvement. A SWPPP for projects under the Construction General Permit must follow a CASQA, Caltrans, or equivalent template. For WPCP projects classified as Priority Development Projects and located in the Los Peñasquitos Watershed, Tijuana River Watershed, or adjacent to an ESA, the plan must be prepared by a Qualified WPCP Preparer.
Where to Download and Submit the Form
Download the current version from the City of San Diego Development Services website at sandiego.gov/dsd. The October 2024 revision (DS-560 10-24) is the most recent as of this writing. A copy can also be requested at the Development Services counter or by calling 619-446-5000.6City of San Diego. Forms and Publications
Submit the completed DS-560 as part of your full permit application package; it does not go in separately. The city’s online permit portal, Accela Citizen Access, handles electronic submissions.7Accela Citizen Access. Online Services Forms that require signatures must still be submitted in hard copy to Development Services. Include the checklist alongside site plans, engineering drawings, and any required stormwater documents so the plan checker can cross-reference the DS-560 answers against the actual project scope.
What Happens After You Submit
City plan checkers compare the DS-560 against the site plans and impervious surface calculations in the rest of the application. If the numbers do not align (for example, you reported 4,800 square feet of new impervious surface but the plans show a 6,000-square-foot parking lot) the application gets kicked back for correction. That single discrepancy can add weeks to the timeline.
Projects disturbing one acre or more face additional state oversight. The Construction General Permit requires a Notice of Intent filed with the State Water Resources Control Board and a Waste Discharge Identification number issued before the city will release a grading or building permit. During construction, the SWPPP or WPCP must stay on-site and be available for inspection by city staff, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, or the State Water Resources Control Board at any time.
If You Actually Meant County Form PDS-313
PDS-313 is a County of San Diego document, not a city form, and it is not a certificate of compliance. It is the Applicant’s Guide to Major Use Permits, Modifications and Minor Deviations, published by County Planning & Development Services. If your project is in unincorporated county territory and you need a major use permit, download PDS-313 directly from the county’s Planning & Development Services site rather than from the City of San Diego.1County of San Diego Planning & Development Services. PDS-313 – Applicants Guide to Major Use Permits, Modifications and Minor Deviations The city’s Development Services counter cannot process it.