I bought a 10 acre lot roughly in the mid-west of California in 2001. It took almost a year to get my first appointment with the planners and 3 more years to work the permits through an overloaded and not-very-competent (putting it very mildly) county. I finally had all the permits and I was about to start construction when I discovered that there was no electric supply at the lot, despite what the realtors had told me and what was on the sales fliers and the underground 3/4" cable in a concrete box by the road-side. I tried to settle the situation amicably by offering to pay 1/3 the cost of getting the supply to the lot. Both realtors refused the suggestion. It was then litigated for several years. During that time the county sent me an email indicating that the permits were about to expire but they still could be revived several times if they expired. I have that email. I agreed to let them expire and when the litigation was complete I contacted the county and was told that I would have to start from scratch and pay the fees again.
I offered to bring all the documents up to the then-current code but they insisted that I had to go through the whole process again. I am struggling to find a way out of this mess, since the county has no sympathy for my situation. I am trying to get all the documentation up to date and then sell the lot with the plans and let the new owner handle the permit applications.
This is where this group may be able to help. I have visited the web site:
Advice will be much appreciated.
TIA