Baltimore County's Department of Permits, Approvals and Inspections at 111 West Chesapeake Avenue in Towson is the enforcing office for the county that wraps around Baltimore City on three sides but does not include it — the city is an independent jurisdiction with its own permit office, and the two are confused daily. The county's current building code was enacted by County Council Bill 49-24, effective September 3, 2024, adopting with amendments the 2021 editions of the International Building Code, International Residential Code, International Mechanical Code, International Energy Conservation Code and International Swimming Pool and Spa Code; the plumbing and gasfitting code was updated separately effective July 1, 2024.
Filing is online only. All applications for building, plumbing, electrical and other construction permits must be completed online, with public workstations and staff in the lobby to help applicants create accounts on a first-come, first-served basis. A permit is valid for one year, with a second year available only if requested at the time the application is filed — an expired permit is refiled from the start, while an unexpired one may be extended.
This guide covers Baltimore County. Baltimore City is a separate, independent jurisdiction with its own permit office and its own code compilation; Towson, Dundalk, Catonsville and Owings Mills are unincorporated communities within the county, not separate permitting authorities.
Ask for the second year at filing. Baltimore County permits are valid for one year, with an option to request one additional year at the time the application is filed. If the permit has expired, a new permit is required; if it has not, an extension may be requested. The second year is cheapest to buy at the beginning, and a lapsed permit on a long project is a refiling, not a renewal.
What requires a building permit in Baltimore County?
Maryland runs on one statewide instrument, the Maryland Building Performance Standards (COMAR 09.12.51), and enforces it locally. The state adopts each new edition of the International Building Code, the International Residential Code and the International Energy Conservation Code, with Maryland modifications, and every jurisdiction must adopt and enforce the same edition within twelve months — counties and the cities that keep their own permit offices may amend the building and residential codes to suit local conditions, but may make the energy code and the Maryland Accessibility Code only more stringent, never less. The 2021 editions, effective statewide on May 29, 2023 with local enforcement required by May 29, 2024, replaced the 2018 editions; the Maryland Building Rehabilitation Code carries the existing building code beside them. What is local in Baltimore County is the enforcing office, its amendments, its fee schedule, and the grading, stormwater, forest conservation and Critical Area approvals that run ahead of the building permit.
The codes draw the exemption line and the local amendments move it. The IRC's work-exempt-from-permit list — small accessory structures, low fences, minor repairs — applies as Baltimore County adopted it, and the jurisdiction's own ordinance may narrow it. Electrical, plumbing and gas work carry their own permits under the state licensing boards' rules, and zoning, grading and sediment control approvals are separate from all of them.
Typically permit required
- Additions, alterations, structural changes, demolitions and changes of use, and construction in the floodplain
- Roof work where fifty percent or more of the sheathing or deck is replaced, and certain siding work
- Retaining walls within ten feet of a property line, which the department inspects and reviews on site before approving the permit
- New buildings, additions and any structural work on an existing building
- Interior alterations that reconfigure space, add plumbing fixtures or extend circuits, under the building or residential code and the Maryland Building Rehabilitation Code
- Decks, accessory structures above the local exemption threshold, retaining walls and swimming pools, including above-ground pools
Often exempt
- Minor cosmetic work — painting, flooring and cabinets — and accessory work below the county's own thresholds outside protected locations
- Painting, wallpapering, interior finishes, cabinets, flooring and trim
- Like-for-like replacement of windows and doors in the same opening
- Small detached accessory structures below the jurisdiction's exemption threshold and fences below its height limit — the zoning rules still apply
- Minor repairs that do not remove or alter structural members
What is actually local, and what is not
The code editions are the state's. Baltimore County's layer is the enforcing office and its amendments to the building and residential codes, its fee schedule, its grading and stormwater ordinances under the state's delegation, and the Bill 49-24 amendments, the online-only filing rule and the grading responsibility that follows the permittee for a year after occupancy.
Who handles permitting in Baltimore County?
The Department of Permits, Approvals and Inspections is the enforcing office, with the Building Engineer as its senior official and plan reviewers covering the building, residential, mechanical, energy and pool codes as Bill 49-24 amended them. The department also administers grading and sediment control, allows approved third-party sediment inspectors at the permittee's cost, and appoints an ombudsman to help applicants move projects forward.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Department | Baltimore County Department of Permits, Approvals and Inspections |
| Office | 111 West Chesapeake Avenue, Room 105, Towson, MD 21204 |
| Phone | (410) 887-3353 |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm |
| Filing | Online only; workstations and staff in the lobby, first come first served |
| Code | Bill 49-24, effective September 3, 2024, amending the 2021 I-codes |
Permit types
Residential permits
A Baltimore County house project files online, with the plan set sealed where the code requires it, and pays fees that the county's own schedule scales from small flat charges to project-valuation figures. A contractor altering the house holds the state home improvement licence, and a homeowner should note the county's grading rule: violations on an individual residential lot remain the permittee's responsibility for one year after use and occupancy approval, unless the occupant has since made grading or landscape changes that caused them.
How Maryland contractor credentials work
Maryland has no state general contractor license for commercial work, but home improvement is licensed outright: the Maryland Home Improvement Commission licenses contractors who alter, repair or improve residential property, with an examination, proof of financial solvency and a guaranty fund that pays homeowners for a licensee's defective or incomplete work. New construction is different again: a home builder registers with the Home Builder Registration Unit of the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division under the Maryland Home Builder Registration Act, and the registration number goes on the permit. Electricians, plumbers and gas fitters, and HVACR contractors are licensed statewide by their boards at the Department of Labor, and Baltimore County verifies those licenses at the permit counter. Owner-occupants may build on their own home without the home improvement license, and Baltimore County licenses no trades of its own beyond any local registration its ordinance keeps.
Commercial permits
Commercial work in Baltimore County is filed online with sealed plans, a site plan, structural calculations, trade drawings and energy compliance documentation, and reviewed against the county code as Bill 49-24 amended it. Grading permits carry a pre-construction meeting at issuance, held to the sequence of operations on the approved erosion and sediment control plan, and third-party sediment inspectors may be used at the permittee's cost — without reducing the county's own fees.
Prior approvals, plan review and the local clock
A Maryland building permit is one application reviewed by the local office's plan reviewers for the building, residential and energy codes, with the electrical, plumbing and mechanical trades permitted alongside it. The approvals that run ahead of it are the ones that decide the schedule: zoning certification, a grading permit with a sediment and erosion control plan approved by the soil conservation district, stormwater management under the Maryland Department of the Environment's delegation, forest conservation under the Forest Conservation Act where the site disturbs enough land, and Critical Area review within a thousand feet of tidal waters. In Baltimore County the grading and sediment control programme follows the Maryland Standards and Specifications for Soil Erosion and Sediment Control in effect on the filing date, the floodplain regulations were updated in May 2024, and Chesapeake Bay Critical Area review reaches the tidal shoreline in the county's south and east. Unlike the states with a statutory review clock, Maryland leaves review times to each jurisdiction — Baltimore County publishes its own targets, and they are the number to plan against.
Baltimore County permit costs and fees
Fees follow the county's building permit fee schedule — from small flat charges to figures based on project valuation — with plan review and third-party inspection costs charged separately.
| Item | Fee or rule |
|---|---|
| Building permit | County fee schedule, from small flat charges to valuation-based figures for larger projects |
| Permit term | One year, with a second year available if requested at filing; expired permits are refiled |
| Third-party sediment inspection | Paid by the permit holder; county fees are not reduced for using it |
| Grading permit | With a pre-construction meeting at issuance following the approved sediment control plan |
| Retaining walls near a line | Site inspection and departmental review before permit approval |
| Fences | Residential fences over six feet and all commercial fences take a permit; lower fences may still need zoning review |
Third-party inspection does not buy a discount. The county's sediment control rules provide that fees for third-party inspections are the responsibility of the permit holder and that county permit fees may not be reduced because of the election to use an approved third-party inspector. Third-party inspection buys schedule, not fee relief.
Trade permits and who may pull them
Trade work is permitted separately from the building permit in most Maryland jurisdictions and inspected by the office's trade inspectors, with the state boards' licenses verified at issuance.
Permit required
- Retaining walls within ten feet of a property line — site inspection and departmental review before approval
- Electrical — state-licensed master electrician; separate electrical permit
- Plumbing and gas — state-licensed master plumber or gas fitter; separate plumbing and gas permits
- HVACR — state-licensed HVACR contractor; mechanical permit
- Fire protection, alarms and sprinklers — fire marshal review, state or local, with the building permit
Typically exempt
- Like-for-like fixture, receptacle and switch replacement where the licensing boards' rules allow it
- Low-voltage and communications wiring below the local permit threshold
How to apply for a Baltimore County building permit
Zoning certification, grading and sediment control, stormwater, forest conservation and Critical Area review run ahead of the building permit.
The Maryland Home Improvement Commission license, or the home builder registration number, goes on the application.
The local application with the building, residential and energy code submittals the scope requires, and trade permits alongside.
Reviewers in the local office check the building, residential and energy codes as the jurisdiction amended them; corrections are answered in writing.
Fees follow the jurisdiction's ordinance and are due before issuance.
Footing to final by permit number, then the use and occupancy certificate that closes the permit.
Review, corrections and what actually causes delay
Baltimore County reviews online and publishes issued permits in a searchable record going back to 2009. What delays a file here is an application attempted on paper, a second permit year not requested at filing, and a grading permit whose pre-construction meeting has not been held in the sequence the approved plan sets out.
Inspections in Baltimore County
Inspections follow the adopted codes' required sequence — footing, foundation, framing, rough trades, insulation and final — and are requested from the local office by permit number. Work that passes final receives a use and occupancy certificate for new buildings and changes of use, or a final approval on the permit for everything else. Baltimore County inspects in the code's sequence — footing and foundation, framing, trade rough-ins, then final and any use and occupancy close-out — with sediment control inspections following the Maryland standards in effect on the filing date and third-party results filed within twenty-four hours of completion.
Baltimore County permit search and official resources
- Baltimore County permit processing — Bill 49-24 and the codes it adopts
- Apply for a permit — the online-only rule and permit terms
- Baltimore County sediment and erosion control — third-party inspection and grading responsibility
- Maryland Building Performance Standards — the statewide code adoptions from the Department of Labor's Building Codes Administration
- Maryland Home Improvement Commission — home improvement contractor licensing and the guaranty fund
- Home Builder Registration Unit — new home builder registration with the Attorney General
Frequently asked questions
Is Baltimore County the same as Baltimore City?
No. Baltimore City is an independent jurisdiction with its own permit office and code compilation; the county surrounds it on three sides and permits separately from Towson.
Which code does the county enforce?
The county code enacted by Bill 49-24, effective September 3, 2024, adopting with amendments the 2021 International Building, Residential, Mechanical, Energy Conservation and Swimming Pool and Spa Codes; plumbing and gasfitting was updated effective July 1, 2024.
Can I file on paper?
No. All applications must be completed online, though workstations and staff are available in the lobby to help set up an account.
How long is a permit valid?
One year, with one additional year available if requested at the time the application is filed.
Who is responsible for grading violations after occupancy?
The permittee, for one year after use and occupancy approval, unless the occupant or owner has since made grading or landscape changes that caused the violation.
Which state code underlies the county's?
The Maryland Building Performance Standards, which adopted the 2021 I-codes with state modifications effective May 29, 2023 and required local enforcement from May 29, 2024.
Simplify Baltimore County permitting with Alliance Permitting
Baltimore County rewards applications that are complete on the first upload and permits that are dated with the whole schedule in mind. We file online with the second year requested, hold the grading pre-construction meeting in sequence, and track every inspection to the use and occupancy close-out.
Ready to break ground in Baltimore County sooner?
Send us the scope and the parcel. We confirm the review path with the Baltimore County Department of Permits, Approvals and Inspections, assemble the submittal, file it, and track it through issuance — corrections included.
More Maryland permitting guides
More Maryland permitting guides
This guide is provided by Alliance Permitting for general information about Baltimore County permitting. Requirements, fees, and procedures change; confirm details with the permitting authority before relying on them.