Hi! I’m the Planning and Building Director, Patrick Murphy. Our department provides a broad range of services and programs to promote and enhance the well being of residents, visitors, property owners, and businesses of the City of Encinitas.

Within the Planning and Building Department are the divisions of Current Planning, Advanced Planning and Housing, Code Enforcement, and Building Services. The goal of these divisions is to encourage high quality development in our community as well as the maintenance and revitalization of existing neighborhoods.

Our department also provides staff support to the Planning Commission, whose members are appointed by the City Council to review all land use matters.

This web page has been developed to provide you with information about the services we provide and how to contact us if you need help. The Planning and Building Department home page allows you to download and print frequently used applications and request forms. As the City’s web site grows, our Department will continue to add more useful information and offer interactive or on-line services. So please, visit this site often. If you have any suggestions about how we can improve this site, please send us an email.

If you do not find what you are looking for on our web page, please contact our staff by email or by phone. Thank you for visiting our site; we look forward to serving you again.

Sincerely,

Patrick Murphy
Planning and Building Director


Patrick Murphy - Biography

Patrick Murphy moved to the newly incorporated City of Big Bear Lake to be their first Planning Director for about 5.5 years after 2.5 years with the City of La Verne's Planning Department. He and his wife moved out of the snow to be on the coast with another newly incorporated city, the City of Encinitas, as their first Planning Director. In 1994, he modified his career path to work as an artist, while at the same time working part-time as a planning consultant (Cities of Encinitas and Imperial Beach). After 7 years of focusing on his art, he returned to the City of Encinitas full time to serve in the position of Planning and Building Director. Over 16 years he has served as a Planning Director, generally in charge of planning, building and code enforcement functions.  He has been working for city planning departments since 1979.  

Mr. Murphy holds a Bachelors degree in Urban Planning from Cal Poly, Pomona.