Building permits in Clark County, Washington

What needs a permit, and what doesn’t

Clark County’s Building program says it reviews and inspects permits “in the unincorporated areas of Clark County and the town of Yacolt,” so a project inside any other incorporated city is outside this section. The Residential Permits page lists decks among the structures its ADS permit covers, and that same page says a deck is exempt if it does not exceed 200 square feet, is not more than 30 inches above grade at any point, is not attached to a dwelling, does not serve a required exit door, and is not built for a hot tub or pool; Building FAQs separately exempts an exterior entry landing proportionate in size to the entry. Building FAQs says “garden sheds that are larger than 200 square feet require a permit,” and any size shed in a mobile home park or multi-family zone needs one.

How CC LMS works, and how to reach staff

Every Clark County building permit, including a deck’s ADS permit and a shed’s building permit, is applied for online through the county’s Land Management System, CC LMS: create an account, create the permit, pay the applicable fees, and submit for processing. Clark’s process notice for building permits states, “Online application submittal is required and any initial submittal fees must be paid,” and the county’s Building page adds, “We have implemented electronic plan review and no longer accept paper submittals.” The email-booked submittal appointment, made by writing to permitservicesappt@clark.wa.gov, is itself virtual: “All intake appointments are conducted virtually.” Any in-person visit to the Permit Center needs its own appointment too: “All in-person services at the Permit Center require an appointment.” Neither is an alternative to applying online.

The fee, worked for a shed and for a deck

Clark’s Building Fees table, Clark County Code 6.140.030, prices a deck as a single line: “Simple garage, carport, patio cover or deck” costs a flat $350.50, which the table says “includes issuance and state fee.” The table has no line for a shed; its residential permits are otherwise priced on “Total Valuation”: $94 for “issuance of permit,” then $75 for “$0 to $2,000.00,” $100 for “$2,000.01 to $5,000.00,” and $250 for “$5,000.01 to $10,000.00,” plus a separate “Residential plan review” at “65% of permit fee” and a “State Building Code issuance fee” of $4.50.

Booking inspections, and what a missed one costs

Once either permit is issued, inspections for a CC LMS permit are requested by phone at 564.397.2477 or by texting SCHEDULE, CANCEL or RESCHEDULE to 866.714.5489; the county’s own notice says “our IVR system is available for scheduling inspections for permits in CC LMS only.” A Tidemark permit instead calls 564.397.4912. Requests “must be made by 10 pm the day before the requested inspection,” and next-day inspections “are not guaranteed”; inspections generally run “between 8 am and 4 pm Monday through Thursday and between 8 am and 3 pm on Friday.” Both worked examples share one rule: the inspections page lists “ADS,” the deck’s own permit type, and “ACC for garage, shed, or shop” among the types that need a Pre-Construction Erosion inspection before a Footing Steel or Zoning Setback inspection. The same notice adds that, upon re-inspection, failing to comply with the first correction notice costs $148 and each subsequent failure $296.

What Clark County does not publish

Our rows carry no processing time for a Shed Permit or a Deck Permit, and none of the pages this section draws from name a day-count target for plan review or permit issuance. The fees table prices a shed by valuation rather than a flat number, so there is no single dollar figure Clark publishes for “a shed” the way there is for a deck’s flat $350.50. If Clark County publishes a turnaround estimate elsewhere, it was not in the documents this section draws from.