Durham Building Permit Office

For ordinary building-code permitting, the usual city-versus-unincorporated-county distinction is reduced in Durham because City-County Building & Safety serves both jurisdictions. The department reviews building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing and related permit work and performs construction inspections under the North Carolina State Building Code.

City-County Building & Safety states that a building permit is required for projects involving load-bearing work or projects exceeding $40,000 in market value. Separate permit requirements apply to regulated electrical, plumbing and mechanical work.

A permitting account requires a Client Identification Account (CID) created by department staff before an email address can be registered for company-specific permit functions. Public permit searches do not use the same company-account setup.

Durham’s published requirements vary between commercial projects, new residential construction and smaller residential work. The items below are tied to conditions identified by the department rather than a universal checklist for every permit.

• Construction drawings: submitted digitally and separated by trade where those disciplines are part of the project.
• Project cost documentation: an executed contract, letter of intent or cost breakdown is required with building-plan submittals under the department’s published requirements, except for new residential construction.
• Workers’ compensation documentation: required at plan submittal when applicable.
• Commercial planning verification: an approved site-plan number or written confirmation that a site plan is not required.
• Residential plot plan: applicable when a project adds to or changes the footprint on the parcel. Durham publishes separate plot-plan requirements for additions, new houses and accessory structures.
• Project-specific forms: Durham maintains separate forms and checklists for new residential construction, renovations, additions, decks, accessory structures, pools, solar installations and other defined project types.

For residential footprint changes, plot-plan information can include property lines, dimensions, existing and proposed structures, distances to property lines, easements, streams, flood zones, impervious-area information and other site conditions relevant to the parcel.

Durham’s Planning & Development Department administers the Unified Development Ordinance for both the City and County. Its responsibilities include development applications, zoning and property review, site plans, plats, historic preservation matters and land-development inspections.

This separation becomes especially visible near project completion. Planning maintains its own inspection process for work that must demonstrate compliance with an approved site plan or another land-use approval. Planning inspection items can include Certificate of Occupancy sign-off, signs, Certificates of Appropriateness and foundation-related approvals.

Fire permitting does not follow the same unified jurisdiction rule as the general building permit. Durham County and the City of Durham maintain separate fire-prevention operations, and the property’s jurisdiction determines which fire authority handles applicable fire-code permits and inspections.

Durham County directs applicants to verify the property jurisdiction before requesting county fire permits or inspections. County fire protection construction permits use the County Fire Prevention & Life Safety process. Properties within the City fire jurisdiction are directed to the Durham City Fire Marshal.

Fire-protection systems can also interact with the building permit process. Durham’s City-County Building & Safety materials include fire-plan review among its permit services, while fire marshal requirements address the separate fire-code inspection and operational side of the project.

Properties that rely on onsite wastewater or private wells have an additional county approval path. The Durham County Department of Public Health Environmental Health Division administers onsite water protection, including septic site evaluations, septic permits, well permits and related construction inspections.

Its published applications include Improvement Permit/Construction Authorization forms for new septic construction, septic repair authorization, existing-system authorization and well permit applications. These approvals are separate from the City-County Building & Safety permit record.

Building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits have separate published fee schedules. Building-plan review also carries a plan-review fee. Durham states that the building plan-review fee is due at plan submittal and is credited toward the building permit fee when the permit is issued.

Because the amount changes with project type, size, value or trade classification, the current department schedule is the appropriate place to determine the actual charge for a specific permit rather than applying one citywide flat fee.