Orange County, New York Building Permit Guide

Every building permit in Orange County is issued by a city, town or village: Middletown, Newburgh and Port Jervis, the town building departments, and the many villages that keep their own inspectors. Orange County adds rules that apply everywhere. Electrical work must be done by a county-licensed electrician and inspected by a county-licensed inspector, any work in or with access from a county road needs a Public Works highway work permit, and the Health Department reviews realty subdivisions for water and wastewater.

What requires a building permit in Orange County?

Lists are local and broad. Crawford’s page says a permit is needed for anything built, from dwellings and garages to decks, porches, pools and sheds. South Blooming Grove requires permits for finished basements, all pools, fences and sheds over 144 square feet, and in Tuxedo Park, listed on the National Register, all changes to a property, including landscaping, tree removal, stone walls and fences, buildings and interiors with significant electrical upgrades, need approval from the Building Department and possibly the village’s architecture, planning and zoning boards; routine maintenance needs no building permit.

What local offices decide and what the state keeps

The 2025 Uniform Code and Energy Code apply in every municipality; stricter local building standards need state approval. Zoning, fees, forms and the filing channel stay local, so two neighbors across a village line can face different rules for the same fence. Orange County is not among the twelve counties the Department of State lists as having opted out of the enforcement of the Uniform and Energy codes.

Orange County building department: who handles permitting

All 44 cities, towns and villages that the Census Bureau counts in the county are listed below. Finished guides on this site are linked for fees, forms and inspection rules.

Three towns have no land outside villages: Census figures put all of Palm Tree inside Kiryas Joel, all of Woodbury inside the Villages of Woodbury and Harriman, and all of Tuxedo inside the Villages of Tuxedo and Tuxedo Park. Highlands works the other way, with the town department permitting inside Highland Falls. Several villages cross town lines (Harriman, Maybrook, Florida and Chester), and the City of Middletown is surrounded by Wallkill, Wawayanda and Mount Hope, so a Middletown mailing address does not decide the office.

What Orange County itself does

• Consumer Affairs, 255 Main Street, Goshen (845-862-9500): licenses electricians and electrical inspectors, the only construction licenses the county issues, and posts a current list of both (dated October 29, 2026).
• Health Department, Environmental Health, 124 Main Street, Goshen (845-862-6201, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. since July 6, 2026): reviews proposed subdivisions of five or more lots on under five acres, mainly for water supply and wastewater, and permits public pools and beaches, camps, temporary residences and mobile home parks.
• Department of Public Works: highway work permits under Highway Law section 136 for all work in a county right-of-way or needing access from a county road, after it approves plans drawn to its Policy and Standards; also special event and special hauling permits.
• Planning Department, 124 Main Street (845-615-3840): reviews General Municipal Law 239 referrals filed by local boards through its online review portal.

Orange County permit types and applications

Residential permits

Filing ranges from portals to paper. The Town of Monroe takes every application on GovWell and Cornwall on MuniCollab; Warwick accepts mail or in-person filing but not email or fax; New Windsor uses paper forms and asks for 10 business days; Wawayanda currently quotes two weeks of review. Goshen has booked inspections by email only since September 8, 2026.

Building or remodeling a home here? Alliance handles residential permit filing, so the crew isn't waiting on the counter.

Commercial permits

Commercial jobs carry a planning board site plan and, often, a county referral. Local boards submit referrals and supporting files through the county portal; anything over 20 MB goes on a flash drive to 124 Main Street. The county posts decision letters online, and the local board files its report of final action through the same portal. A project with a driveway onto a county road also needs DPW plan approval before the highway work permit.

For tenant improvements and new commercial builds, Alliance handles commercial permit expediting through issuance. More on this: commercial building permits explained.

What comes before the building permit

• Zoning boards: planning board, ZBA and, in some places, architectural review.
• County referral: Planning Department recommendation on referred actions.
• Subdivision health review: county Environmental Health for five or more lots under five acres.
• Septic and well: the town permit where the town issues it, as Wallkill, Montgomery, the Town of Newburgh and Blooming Grove do.
• County road: DPW highway work permit.
• Historic review: in Tuxedo Park, the Building Department and possibly the Board of Architectural Review approve changes to a property.

Building permit fees in Orange County

Each municipality adopts its own fees. The town rules below come from this site’s finished guides, where the full schedules and dates appear; the cities price new work differently, Middletown at $10 per $1,000 of construction cost up to $500,000 and the City of Newburgh at $250 plus $17 per $1,000 for a new home.

Worked comparison for a 2,000-square-foot new house: New Windsor $50 + $1,000 = $1,050; Town of Newburgh $200 + $1,000 = $1,200; Montgomery $500 + $1,000 = $1,500; Goshen $150 + $1,500 = $1,650; Wallkill $1,700 plus the $50 certificate fee; Chester $75 + $2,800 = $2,875. Septic, well, plan review and escrow charges, where a town has them, are extra.

Trade permits and who may pull them

Orange County licenses one trade itself: an electrical license is needed to do electrical work anywhere in the county, and an electrical inspector license to inspect it. Consumer Affairs states that no other construction license is required at county level, so there is no county plumbing or home-improvement license. Blooming Grove’s permits, for example, call for an Orange County licensed electrician.

The cities add their own boards. Middletown requires City-licensed plumbers and electricians and issues electrical permits only to holders of a City master electrician’s license, and the City of Newburgh issues electrical permits to electricians licensed by its Board of Electrical Examiners, with an owner-occupant exception for one- and two-family homes. Workers’ compensation and disability coverage, or the state exemption, is asked for with each application.

How to get a building permit in Orange County

Review, corrections and what causes delay

Review periods are local: New Windsor asks for 10 business days, Wawayanda quotes two weeks, Chester at least two to three, and Monroe up to three. Common hold-ups are a county referral still open, DPW plans not yet approved for a county-road driveway, and electrical work by someone without a county license. The Village of Woodbury also warns applicants about fake invoices for planning approvals sent by scammers.

Inspections and certificates

Inspections are booked with the issuing building department, under its own notice rules: the Town of Newburgh wants at least 24 hours, and Goshen books only by email. Electrical inspections are made by a county-licensed inspector, whose certificate the local office needs before it closes the permit.

The last step is a certificate of occupancy or compliance from the local office. Villages such as South Blooming Grove also run violation searches before a sale, checking smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, garage separation, relief pipes, pool barriers and deck railings.

New York building code

New York builds on one statewide code, the Uniform Code, outside New York City; the 2025 edition and 2025 Energy Code took effect on 31 December 2025 (the all-electric provisions remain suspended by court order). Cities, towns and villages administer it, and local standards stricter than the code need Code Council approval. The Uniform Code in New York

In Orange County the code is applied by 44 local offices, with the county’s electrical licensing layered on top.

Orange County permit FAQ

Does Orange County issue building permits?

No. Cities, towns and villages issue them; the county licenses electricians and electrical inspectors and permits work on county roads.

Does my electrician need an Orange County license?

Yes. Electrical work anywhere in the county requires an Orange County electrical license, and electrical inspections require a county inspector license.

Does the county license plumbers or home improvement contractors?

No. Consumer Affairs says no other construction licenses are required at county level; Middletown and the City of Newburgh license plumbers themselves.

Who issues septic permits?

For a single house, the town building department in towns such as Wallkill, Montgomery and Blooming Grove; county Environmental Health reviews subdivisions of five or more lots under five acres.

Do I need a county permit for a driveway?

Yes, if it takes access from a county road. DPW issues a highway work permit after approving the plans.

Who permits in Woodbury?

The Village of Woodbury’s Building Department (845-928-6911, ext. 5 then 1). The whole Town of Woodbury lies inside the Villages of Woodbury and Harriman, and Harriman parcels go to that village.

Are Orange County communities in the flood insurance program?

Yes. Every Orange County community FEMA lists is in its participating section.

Orange County permit search and official resources

Permit and certificate records stay with the issuing city, town or village. Several take FOIL requests online (the Town of Newburgh, Highlands, Monroe and Middletown among them), and others through the clerk. The county keeps its electrician and inspector list and its 239 decision letters online.

• Orange County Consumer Affairs licenses
• Orange County license requirements
• Orange County Environmental Health
• Orange County GML 239 referrals
• Orange County DPW permits and plan review
• NYS Department of State Code Inspection Unit (opted-out counties)
• FEMA Community Status Book, New York
• NYS code adoption and enforcement updates

Simplify Orange County permitting with Alliance Permitting

Alliance Permitting is a permit documentation and submission company in New York. We prepare your paperwork, file it correctly and coordinate with the permitting authority through issuance. We are not a contractor and we do not perform licensed plan review or inspections; that work stays with your licensed team and the jurisdiction.

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