DeKalb County Building Permit — Filed & Tracked For You

DeKalb County building permits come from the Permits, Plan Review & Inspections Division for unincorporated DeKalb. The rule that catches people is the classification: for permitting and plan review, residential means single-family detached homes and duplexes only. All other structures are classified as commercial.

That single line moves townhomes onto the commercial track — a different submittal standard, a different review path, and a Land Development Permit in front of the building permit. The same builder filing the same product in Gwinnett would be on the residential track.

Applies to unincorporated DeKalb County. Decatur, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Tucker, Stonecrest, Chamblee, Doraville, Clarkston, Avondale Estates, Lithonia, Pine Lake, and Stone Mountain permit their own work, as does the City of Atlanta where it extends into DeKalb.

What requires a permit in DeKalb County?

A DeKalb County building permit is required before most construction, alteration, repair, or change of use in unincorporated DeKalb County. The Permits, Plan Review & Inspections Division, inside the Department of Planning and Sustainability, reviews plans, issues permits, and conducts inspections, working with residents, contractors, and developers from application through final inspection.

DeKalb has been reshaped by incorporation more than almost any Georgia county. Dunwoody incorporated in 2008, Brookhaven in 2013, Tucker and Stonecrest in 2016 and 2017, and Decatur, Chamblee, Doraville, Clarkston, Avondale Estates, Lithonia, Pine Lake, and Stone Mountain all run their own permitting. Atlanta itself extends into DeKalb. Each of those took authority off the county on a specific date, and the county does not forward misdirected applications.

The classification rule is where DeKalb differs most from its neighbours. For permitting and plan review purposes, residential construction in DeKalb includes single-family detached homes and duplexes only. All other structures are classified as commercial. A townhome project that files as residential in Gwinnett files as commercial in DeKalb, with a different review path and a different document set.

The enforced code is the Georgia State Minimum Standard Codes — the 2024 International Building Code and 2024 International Residential Code with Georgia Amendments, alongside the 2024 International Plumbing, Mechanical, Fuel Gas, and Swimming Pool and Spa Codes and the 2023 National Electrical Code with the 2026 Georgia Amendments. Georgia turned its codes over on January 1, 2026. The Board of Community Affairs, acting on the recommendation of the State Codes Advisory Committee, adopted the 2024 editions of the building, residential, plumbing, mechanical, fuel gas, and swimming pool and spa codes, together with the 2023 National Electrical Code carrying the 2026 Georgia Amendments. A project drawn to the previous editions is drawn to a superseded code, and the Georgia Amendments — not the base I-Code text — are what the plan reviewer reads.

DeKalb County building department: who handles permitting

Permitting runs out of the Department of Planning and Sustainability, through the Permits, Plan Review & Inspections Division. Both permitting and zoning operate from the same One-Stop location at 178 Sams Street in Decatur, on different options of the same phone line — permits on 404-371-2155 option 3, zoning on option 4.

The One-Stop counter runs 8:30am to 4:00pm, which is a shorter public window than most large metro Atlanta counties keep and worth planning a counter visit around. Permit questions go to permitinfo@dekalbcountyga.gov; zoning questions to plansustain@dekalbcountyga.gov.

DeKalb also requires an explicit chain of authority on the application. Once a contractor has been designated, any applicant other than the licensed contractor must also submit an Authorized Permit Agent Form. An expediter, architect, or office manager filing on the contractor's behalf is exactly who that form exists for, and its absence stalls the file rather than the review.

The City of Decatur and DeKalb County are separate permitting authorities that share a name, a downtown, and a mailing address range. Decatur runs its own portal and its own arborist pre-application requirement for tree work. DeKalb's own One-Stop is on Sams Street in Decatur, which means the county office sits inside a city it does not permit.

DeKalb County permits: record types and what each covers

DeKalb's record set is organised around a classification rule that is narrower than most Georgia counties, with land development sitting in front of commercial work. These are the records you will file:

Residential permit types

Commercial permit types

Records you will actually see in DeKalb County

Solar permits in DeKalb County

Solar is filed as its own record across Georgia rather than as a line item on a building permit, and it is reviewed on two tracks at once: the electrical side (conductors, overcurrent protection, rapid shutdown, labelling, and the service or supply-side connection, all against the 2023 National Electrical Code with the 2026 Georgia Amendments) and the structural side (attachment detail, rail spacing, and whether the existing framing carries the added dead load).

Solar on a detached home or duplex in unincorporated DeKalb is a residential record; solar on a townhome is a commercial one, because of how DeKalb classifies the building underneath it. That distinction decides the submittal standard before anyone looks at the array.

The covenant question comes up on nearly every residential array, and Georgia answers it less generously than several neighbouring states. Georgia's Solar Power Free-Market Financing Act (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-113 and Title 46, Chapter 3, Article 8) makes third-party solar financing lawful and limits a property owners' association's ability to prohibit solar outright, but Georgia gives homeowners materially less protection than North Carolina or Florida do: an association retains real authority over placement and appearance, and a covenant restricting where panels may sit on the roof will usually stand. Read the covenants before designing the array, not after.

Utility interconnection runs on its own clock alongside the permit. Georgia Power and the state's electric membership corporations each set their own application, meter, and witness-test sequence, and permission to operate is not something the building department controls — plan for the two tracks to finish at different times.

Roofing permits in DeKalb County

A roof covering replacement needs a permit across most of Georgia. The permit is usually quick, but it is not optional, and the inspection that matters happens before the covering goes on rather than after.

Because Georgia enforces a statewide minimum code, there is no state product-approval database to search and no approval number to cite on the application. The assembly has to comply with the adopted code and the manufacturer's listed installation instructions, and that pairing is what the inspector checks — which makes the manufacturer's instructions a document worth having on site.

Reroofs follow the same classification split. A townhome reroof in DeKalb is commercial work for permitting purposes even though the occupant experience is entirely residential, and a roofer carrying a residential submittal habit across the Gwinnett line will find that out at intake.

Sequencing is where reroofs go wrong. The deck and dry-in condition has to be visible when the inspector arrives, so covering it first means opening it back up. Where a previous layer has been torn off, expect attention to deck fastening and to any sheathing replaced along the eaves.

DeKalb County permit cost

DeKalb prices building permits from the scope and value of the work, with trade permits carried as separate records and land development charged on its own track. Because the county classifies anything beyond a detached house or duplex as commercial, a townhome or small multifamily project prices on the commercial schedule rather than the residential one — a difference that shows up in the estimate long before it shows up on site.

The Land Development Permit is the item most often left out of an early budget. It is a prerequisite to new commercial construction rather than a parallel approval, so its cost and its timeline both sit on the critical path.

Since July 1, 2026 the land-disturbance side carries statutory consequences when the county misses its own deadlines. For land-disturbance permits, from July 1, 2026, the existing 45-day initial review period stays, but the issuing authority now has five days to decide whether an application is complete and whether outside review is needed — miss that and the application is deemed complete. It must act on the first resubmission within 20 days and on later resubmissions within 14, and new comments generally have to relate to the original comments or to what the applicant actually changed. A denial has to state its reasons in writing. Miss the issuance or denial deadline and the authority must refund the application fees, and the applicant may seek mandamus in superior court with the petition given priority on the docket (O.C.G.A. §§ 12-7-9, 12-7-11).

DeKalb County trade permits

DeKalb's trade requirements track the state licensing framework, but the county adds an authority step that trips up anyone filing on someone else's behalf and a close-out step that is easy to leave undone.

DeKalb County permit application: how to apply step by step

Here is how to get a building permit in DeKalb County, from confirming the requirement through to close-out. Each step below corresponds to a real decision point where projects commonly stall.

Inspections in DeKalb County

Inspections are requested online through the e-Permitting Portal, and the division handles the whole arc — plan review, permit issuance, and inspection — rather than splitting them across agencies. Certificates of Occupancy are issued by DeKalb Development Services once all required inspections have been passed.

The close-out step is more manual than the rest of the process and is worth flagging on your own checklist: a copy of the front and back of the permit is emailed to the development inspections address to obtain the Certificate of Occupancy. Projects sit finished-but-unclosed in DeKalb more often than they sit failed.

Georgia also lets an applicant bring a private professional provider to the plan review itself. Once the permit application and the provider's affidavit are both in, the building official has 30 days to issue the permit or give written notice identifying the specific plan features that do not comply and the specific code chapters and sections behind each. If that written notice does not arrive inside 30 days, the application is deemed approved as a matter of law and the permit shall be issued. A timely notice tolls the 30 days; when revisions come back, the official has the remainder of the tolled period plus five business days (O.C.G.A. § 8-2-26(g)).

Keep the permit and approved plans on site throughout — you will need both sides of the permit at close-out. a Georgia building permit generally becomes invalid if work does not begin within 180 days of issuance, or if work is suspended or abandoned for 180 days after commencing, under the administrative provisions of the adopted International Building and Residential Codes — local ordinance may set a different period, and extensions are usually available in writing on request.

DeKalb County permit search and official resources

DeKalb publishes its permitting guidance, land development requirements, and zoning information through Planning and Sustainability, with the e-Permitting Portal carrying applications, status, and inspection requests.

• DeKalb Permits, Plan Review & Inspections
• DeKalb e-Permitting Portal
• Building permits — Planning and Sustainability
• City of Decatur permitting — separate authority
• DCA — current Georgia State Minimum Standard Codes
• DCA — administration and enforcement of the state minimum codes

Frequently asked questions

Who issues building permits in DeKalb County, GA?

The Permits, Plan Review & Inspections Division of the Department of Planning and Sustainability, for unincorporated DeKalb County. Decatur, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Tucker, Stonecrest, Chamblee, Doraville, Clarkston, Avondale Estates, Lithonia, Pine Lake, and Stone Mountain permit their own work, as does the City of Atlanta where it extends into DeKalb.

Are townhomes residential or commercial in DeKalb County?

Commercial. For permitting and plan review purposes, DeKalb defines residential construction as single-family detached homes and duplexes only. All other structures are classified as commercial, which changes the submittal standard and the review path.

Do I need a Land Development Permit in DeKalb County?

For new commercial construction, yes — all new commercial construction must begin with a Land Development Permit. It runs on the erosion and sedimentation track and precedes the building permit, so it sits on the critical path rather than alongside it.

What is an Authorized Permit Agent Form?

A DeKalb form required once a contractor has been designated and the applicant is somebody other than that licensed contractor. Expediters, architects, engineers, and administrative staff filing on a contractor's behalf all need it.

What are DeKalb County's permit office hours?

The One-Stop runs 8:30am to 4:00pm. Permits are reached on 404-371-2155 option 3, zoning on option 4, and both operate from 178 Sams Street in Decatur.

How do I request a DeKalb County inspection?

Inspections are requested online through the e-Permitting Portal, which also carries applications and status.

How do I get a Certificate of Occupancy in DeKalb County?

Once all required inspections are successfully completed, a Certificate of Occupancy may be obtained from DeKalb Development Services. A copy of the front and back of the permit is emailed to the development inspections address to start that.

Who can submit a New Construction Permit in DeKalb County?

The property owner, the developer, or the architect or engineer. If a contractor has already been designated and the applicant is not that contractor, the Authorized Permit Agent Form is required alongside the application.

What code does DeKalb County enforce?

The Georgia State Minimum Standard Codes. DeKalb adopted the 2024 ICC codes effective January 1, 2026, in line with the State of Georgia — the 2024 International Building and Residential Codes with Georgia Amendments, plus the 2023 National Electrical Code with the 2026 Georgia Amendments. The energy code remains the 2015 IECC.

Is the City of Decatur the same as DeKalb County?

No. Decatur is a separate permitting authority with its own portal and its own requirements, including an arborist pre-application meeting before any permit that removes trees or disturbs a protected tree's critical root zone. DeKalb County's own One-Stop office happens to sit inside Decatur.

When is a Georgia contractor licence required?

Once the value of the work, or the contractor's compensation, exceeds two thousand five hundred dollars, tested per project rather than per invoice. Trade licences under Title 43, Chapter 14 are required regardless of job value.

What happens if DeKalb misses a land-disturbance review deadline?

Since July 1, 2026 the authority must refund the application fees, and the applicant may seek mandamus relief in superior court with priority on the docket. Note the limit: the application may be deemed complete on a missed completeness deadline, but it is never deemed approved.

Simplify DeKalb County permitting with Alliance Permitting

DeKalb is well documented and internally consistent, but it is consistent with itself rather than with its neighbours. The townhome classification, the Land Development Permit sitting in front of commercial work, the agent form, and a close-out that runs by email are all learnable — and all four are places where a team carrying habits from the next county over will lose a cycle. A permit expediter for DeKalb County is applying DeKalb's rules rather than the region's.

Trusted by leading builders, developers, and national contractors — 21 years of filing in the jurisdictions we write about.

Contractors and builders choose Alliance for DeKalb County because the work is done by people who have stood at the counter:

• Right classification — detached and duplex against everything else, settled before design rather than at first review.
• LDP on the critical path — land development started early on commercial work, and tracked against its statutory clock.
• Complete oversight — every DeKalb permit, LDP, inspection, and Certificate of Occupancy tracked across your jobs in one place.

Alliance Permitting is a permit documentation and expediting service. We are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice, and we are not the permitting authority.

This guide is provided by Alliance Permitting for general information about DeKalb County permitting. Requirements, fees, and procedures change; confirm details with the permitting authority before relying on them.