The Town of Scarborough's Planning and Codes Department, at Town Hall on US Route 1, enforces the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code for one of the fastest-growing municipalities in the state, a town of around twenty-five thousand stretched between the Portland line, the beaches and the marsh. The code enforcement officers process and approve permits for construction, electrical, plumbing, heating and a range of site amenities, act as staff liaisons to the Zoning Board of Appeals, and inspect the steady flow of new development and redevelopment.
The town's intake is deliberately simple: building permit applications are emailed to a single submittals address, delivered to the Planning Department at Town Hall, or posted to the town's PO box. Property files have moved to an electronic filing system and are made available within forty-eight hours of a request by email or telephone — a genuine convenience on a due-diligence timetable, and worth requesting early rather than at the point of need. An advanced parcel viewer carries zoning and assessing data alongside.
This guide covers the Town of Scarborough in Cumberland County. South Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Old Orchard Beach, Saco, Gorham and Westbrook are separate municipalities with their own code enforcement officers, and no Maine county issues building permits.
One email address, and forty-eight hours for the file. Scarborough building permit applications go to the town's submittals email address, with delivery and post as alternatives. Property files are electronic and supplied within forty-eight hours of a request — on a purchase or a renovation of an older house, requesting the file at the outset rather than mid-design is the cheapest hour in the project.
What requires a building permit in Scarborough?
Maine draws its line in an unusual place: the code applies everywhere, but enforcement depends on how many people live in the municipality. The Technical Building Codes and Standards Board adopts the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code — the MUBEC — under Title 10 of the revised statutes, and all building construction in the State is governed by it whatever the town does. What Title 25 adds is the enforcement duty: a municipality with a population over four thousand must enforce the MUBEC, while a smaller one may choose to and many do not. The design obligation does not move with that choice — a house in a town of eight hundred is still meant to be built to the MUBEC; there may simply be no local officer checking. The current edition rests on the twenty twenty-one international building, residential, existing building, mechanical and energy codes, in force since the seventh of April twenty twenty-five. So in Scarborough the questions are whether the municipality enforces, which officer holds which certification, and the submittals email address and the shoreland review the marsh brings.
The adopted code draws the permit line and the municipality administers it. Ordinary repairs generally need no permit; construction, alteration, repair, demolition and any change of occupancy generally do. Two Maine features sit on top of that line in almost every town. Shoreland zoning is mandatory statewide within two hundred and fifty feet of most water bodies and wetlands and within seventy-five feet of a stream, so a shorefront parcel answers a second ordinance before the building permit. And fees and appeals are local: the state code deletes its own fee and appeals provisions, leaving both to the municipality.
Typically permit required
- Construction, electrical, plumbing and heating work, each processed by the code enforcement officers
- Site amenities the department permits alongside the building work
- Shoreland zone review on marsh, river and beach frontage, before the building permit
- New buildings, additions and structural work, under the MUBEC as the municipality enforces it
- Alterations, renovations and repairs beyond ordinary repair, and any change of use or occupancy
- Work inside the shoreland zone, which needs its own permit under the municipal shoreland ordinance
Often exempt
- Ordinary repairs that do not alter structure, egress, fire protection or building systems
- Painting, papering, flooring, cabinets and similar finish work
- Ordinary repairs that do not alter structure, egress, fire protection or building systems
- Painting, papering, flooring, cabinets and similar finish work
- Building permits in a municipality under four thousand people that has not chosen to enforce the code — though the code still governs the work and other requirements still apply
Who enforces, and what the state certifies
Maine does not leave the enforcing officer to the municipality's discretion. A code enforcement officer under Title 30-A must be certified by the state in each area of responsibility — shoreland zoning, land use, internal plumbing, subsurface wastewater and building standards are separate certifications — within twelve months of appointment, with recertification every six years; the certifying body is now the Maine Office of Community Affairs, which took over the programme in the twenty twenty-five reorganisation. A plumbing inspector must be certified before acting at all. A municipality may also use a certified third-party inspector to discharge its MUBEC duty rather than employing its own building official, which is how a number of smaller Maine towns enforce. Beyond that, the single submittals email address, the forty-eight hour electronic property file, and the salt marsh and beach frontage that put shoreland review at the front of most coastal files.
Who handles permitting in Scarborough?
The Planning and Codes Department is the permitting authority inside the town, with state-certified code enforcement officers interpreting and enforcing the local, state and federal regulations that apply to building construction and development. The same department staffs the Zoning Board of Appeals, runs planning and development review, holds the electronic property files, and administers shoreland zoning; the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation licenses electricians and plumbers statewide.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Department | Scarborough Planning and Codes Department |
| Office | Scarborough Town Hall, 259 US Route 1, Scarborough, ME 04074 |
| Phone | (207) 730-4040 |
| Filing | Emailed to the town's submittals address, delivered to Town Hall, or posted to the PO box |
| Property files | Electronic, available within forty-eight hours of request |
| Trade licences | Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, statewide |
Permit types
Residential permits
A Scarborough house project emails its application to the submittals address with the trades following on their own permits and the internal plumbing on the state's form. On Higgins Beach, Pine Point, Prouts Neck and the marsh edges the shoreland ordinance decides setbacks, clearing and the expansion of a non-conforming structure long before the building code is reached, and a renovation there is designed to those limits or not at all.
How Maine contractor credentials work
Maine has no general contractor licence. A builder needs no state credential to take on a house, and the protection sits in contract law instead: under the Home Construction Contracts Act a contract for more than the statutory threshold must be in writing and carry specified terms, including warranty and dispute-resolution provisions. The trades are licensed: electricians hold licences from the state electricians' examining board and plumbers from the plumbers' examining board, both within the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, and oil and solid fuel technicians hold their own. Site evaluators for subsurface wastewater are licensed separately. In Scarborough the code enforcement officer checks the trade licence at permit issue, and the absence of a general contractor licence makes the written contract the owner's main protection.
Commercial permits
Commercial work in Scarborough — the Route One corridor, the Downs redevelopment on the former racetrack, the industrial parcels near the turnpike and the hospital campus — runs through the same department with planning board review where the project reaches site plan. The town's rapid growth means a good deal of the commercial file is greenfield rather than conversion, which shifts the questions towards stormwater, traffic and marsh proximity rather than existing building provisions.
Shoreland zoning, wastewater and the unorganized territory
Three Maine overlays reach projects that the building code alone would not. Shoreland zoning is required of every municipality with water in it, and its setbacks, clearing limits and expansion rules are stricter than any building code provision. Subsurface wastewater on an unserved lot needs a licensed site evaluator's design on the state's own form before the municipality will take the building application. And beyond the municipalities altogether lie the unorganized and deorganized territories — some ten million acres with no local government — where the Land Use Planning Commission is the zoning and permitting authority and issues the building permit itself. In Scarborough the salt marsh, the Nonesuch and Scarborough rivers and the beach frontage put shoreland zoning and wetland review at the front of the file across much of the town, and the flood elevations on the low ground govern finished floor levels near the water.
Scarborough permit costs and fees
Scarborough charges building and trade permit fees on the declared construction value under the town's schedule, with planning board review fees where the project reaches site plan and copy charges on property file requests.
| Item | Fee or rule |
|---|---|
| Building permit | On the declared construction value, per the town's schedule |
| Trade permits | Separate electrical, plumbing and heating fees |
| Shoreland zone permit | Where the parcel falls inside the shoreland zone |
| Planning board review | Site plan and subdivision review fees |
| Property file | Supplied electronically within forty-eight hours of request |
| Site amenities | Permitted alongside the building work by the same department |
The marsh is the design constraint, not the code. Scarborough surrounds the largest salt marsh in Maine. Within two hundred and fifty feet of the marsh's upland edge the shoreland ordinance governs setbacks, clearing and how far a non-conforming structure may be expanded — limits that are stricter than anything in the building code and that decide the envelope before an architect draws it.
Trade permits and who may pull them
Trade work is permitted separately and carried out by tradespeople holding the state licence their trade requires. Internal plumbing runs through the local plumbing inspector on the state's own permit form rather than through the building permit.
Permit required
- Internal plumbing — the state's own permit form, issued by the certified local plumbing inspector
- Subsurface wastewater — a licensed site evaluator's design, filed with the municipality
- Electrical — by an electrician licensed by the state examining board
- Heating, oil and solid fuel appliances — by a technician licensed for that fuel
Typically exempt
- Like-for-like replacement the adopted code and the plumbing rules place below the permit threshold
- Minor repairs to existing fixtures and wiring within the code's own exemptions
How to apply for a Scarborough building permit
Enforcement is mandatory above four thousand people and optional below; the code governs the work either way.
Within two hundred and fifty feet of most water bodies the shoreland ordinance governs setbacks, clearing and expansion.
A licensed site evaluator's subsurface design on the state form, filed with the municipality.
Electricians and plumbers hold state licences; there is no general contractor licence, so the written contract carries the terms.
Reviewed against the MUBEC as the municipality enforces it, with the local zoning ordinance alongside.
Footing to final, plumbing on its own permit through the local plumbing inspector, then the certificate of occupancy.
Review, corrections and what actually causes delay
The code enforcement officers review for the MUBEC, the town's zoning and shoreland ordinance, with planning board review where the project reaches site plan. What delays a Scarborough project is a coastal design drawn before the shoreland limits are known, and a property file requested at the point of need rather than at the outset.
Inspections in Scarborough
Where the municipality enforces, inspections follow the code's sequence — footing, foundation, framing, rough trades, insulation and final — requested from the code enforcement officer by permit number, with plumbing inspected by the local plumbing inspector on its own permit. Work that passes final receives a certificate of occupancy where the municipality issues one, and a shoreland or wastewater condition closes with the officer certified in that area rather than with the building inspector. Scarborough inspections are requested from the Planning and Codes Department against the permit number, with each trade on its own permit and internal plumbing inspected on the state's form; the department publishes the inspection types it carries out.
Scarborough permit search and official resources
- Scarborough Codes — the submittals address, property files and the code officers' remit
- Scarborough Planning and Codes — the department and its planning and development role
- Scarborough inspections — the inspection types the department carries out
- Maine Office of the State Fire Marshal, building codes — the MUBEC, its chapters and the enforcement threshold
- Maine Office of Community Affairs, code enforcement — code enforcement officer certification and the specialty areas
- Maine Land Use Planning Commission — permitting in the unorganized and deorganized territories
Frequently asked questions
Who issues building permits in Scarborough?
The town's Planning and Codes Department at Town Hall, 259 US Route 1. No Maine county issues building permits.
How do I file an application?
By email to the town's submittals address, by delivery to the Planning Department at Town Hall, or by post to the town's PO box.
How do I get a property file?
By email or telephone to the department. Files are electronic and made available within forty-eight hours of the request.
Does the marsh affect my project?
If the parcel is within two hundred and fifty feet of the marsh's upland edge or other protected water, the shoreland ordinance governs setbacks, clearing and expansion.
Which code applies?
The Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code, on the twenty twenty-one model codes in force since the seventh of April twenty twenty-five.
Does Scarborough have to enforce the code?
Yes. Enforcement is a statutory duty for any Maine municipality above four thousand people.
Simplify Scarborough permitting with Alliance Permitting
Scarborough is one inbox and one marsh. We pull the property file at the outset and design the coastal work to the shoreland limits before the building set is drawn.
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Send us the scope and the parcel. We confirm the review path with the Scarborough Planning and Codes Department, assemble the submittal, file it, and track it through issuance — corrections included.
More Maine permitting guides
More Maine permitting guides
This guide is provided by Alliance Permitting for general information about Scarborough permitting. Requirements, fees, and procedures change; confirm details with the permitting authority before relying on them.