Jyardgirl
Try living in a Hysterical(historical) District. It took 6 months to get a permit to take down and rebuild my barn/garage to the same size shape, footprint, to modern day setbacks. We even recycled the hundred year old redwood siding to rebuild it. The city planner initially said you can't do this, the barn may be historical and you'll have to have a historical survey=2500.00 to prove it isn't. Then it will go through a historical review. I cried Bullshit, got the senior planner to review and ok it. He was thrilled we were trying to save the building. She then was in charge of issuing the permit. Well... she said, "I haven't seen your permit, and I only look at permits on Friday, and yours would be on the bottom of my pile, so I don't think it will reach my eyes until 2-3 weeks from now." I blew a gasget! She relented and issued the pemit, with..."I met you in the middle on this one, but when it comes to your house addition, it's going to be by the book."
It came down to me contacting her boss, threatening to sue the City for abuse and unproffessional conduct. About a year later we got the permit for our addition, total city cost's around 14,000.00 dollars.
Like everyone else has said, those temperary structures are the way around the city. Instead of issuing permits for nice garages and or car ports, the city here makes it impossible for the home owner, to the point they all end up with white half dome car ports(quonset huts we called them in Florida)
They city planners are all power hungry fiends here and love to bust the chops of the people who pay their flea picking salaries! Good luck!