Submitting an application

Submit a permit application to the office handling your application through the online portal at your portal.

• A verified portal account. See Create your account.
• Your property address, and the your property or parcel identifier if you have it.
• A clear description of the work, its dimensions, and an estimated construction value.
• Your documents saved and ready to upload — see Uploading your files.
• Read What you'll need before you start first if you haven't. It will save you a cycle.

Give yourself an uninterrupted block of time. Applications can usually be saved and resumed, but you'll finish faster in one sitting.

Steps

- If your address doesn't come up, stop and contact the office. A new or recently split parcel may not be in the system yet.

1. Add the people involved: applicant, property owner, contractor, and design professional as applicable. Some roles are required and the application won't submit without them.
2. Describe the work. Be specific and use numbers. Include what's being added, changed, or removed; the square footage affected; and the materials involved.
3. Enter the estimated construction value or job cost if asked. Give a real figure rather than a placeholder — what you enter here is part of the permit record, and in many cases it affects what you're charged.
4. Answer the additional questions for your permit type. These vary a lot — they may cover occupancy, existing conditions, floodplain, historic district, or utility connections. If a question genuinely doesn't apply, say so rather than leaving it blank.
5. Upload your documents. See Uploading your files for formats, sizes, and naming. Upload failures are the most common reason an application stalls at this point.
6. Review the summary page carefully. Check the address, the scope description, and the contractor information. Some details you can still correct yourself afterwards, but the project title, the application type, the workflow and the jurisdiction lock when you submit — after that only the office handling your application can change them. Get those four right on this page.
7. Submit the application. If a fee is due at submittal, you'll be taken to payment — see Paying your fees.
8. Save or note your application number. Every future conversation about this project starts with that number.

What happens next

You should get a confirmation on screen and by email. Submitting is not the same as being approved — your application first goes through an intake or completeness check, where staff confirm everything required is present. Your project page shows where it is at any time.

If something's missing, you'll be contacted and the application will wait for you. If it's complete, it moves into review — which may include several departments looking at it in parallel or in sequence. You can follow along at any time; see What your application status means.

When review is finished, you'll either receive an approval and an invoice for any remaining fees, or a correction letter asking for changes. Corrections are normal and are not a judgment about you or your project. See What a correction means.

Do not begin work until the permit is actually issued. An application in review is not a permit.

If something goes wrong

Need help mid-application? The office, the email address shown on your portal, the phone number shown on your portal, their published hours.