Washington County, OR

Common application types

• Residential Building Permit
• Commercial Building Permit
• Agricultural Building
• Grading and Engineering Permit
• Electrical, Plumbing and Mechanical Permits
• Prescriptive Solar Permit
• Urban or Rural Accessory Dwelling Unit (Type I)
• Property Line Adjustment
• Land Division (Partition or Subdivision)

New homes and additions

Land use and zoning actions, plat, address and any flood plain or historic district requirements must be complete before plan review. A scaled site plan on 11x17 paper is required for all building permits, showing the entire lot, setbacks, property corner elevations with 2-foot contours, easements, wells or septic systems and utilities. Plan sets include foundation, floor, framing and roof plans, cross sections, exterior elevations (at least two for additions and remodels), prescriptive wall bracing or lateral analysis, energy code measures, and stamped engineering where required. Clean Water Services sewer authorization is required in the CWS district when work extends outside the existing footprint, a radon mitigation plan or method description is listed as a jurisdictional item, and the county mails a letter if a grading permit is required.

ADUs and middle housing

Urban and rural ADUs are Type I applications submitted online. Middle housing (duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, townhouses and cottage clusters) is allowed in urban unincorporated residential districts where single-detached dwellings are allowed, such as R-5, R-6, R-9, R-15, R-24 and R-25+, under Community Development Code Section 430-84. An expedited middle housing land division can place each unit on its own lot, and a pre-application conference is strongly encouraged.

Decks, retaining walls and accessory structures

A ground-level deck does not need a building permit, though setbacks still apply. A non-habitable one-story detached accessory structure is exempt up to 200 sq ft and 15 feet tall, increasing to 400 sq ft on parcels of 2 acres or more when at least 20 feet from all property lines and regulated structures.

Commercial tenant improvements and change of use

Commercial projects, including tenant improvements, apply through BDAS and then upload plans to ProjectDox after receiving emailed instructions. The county publishes a Code Summary Handout for new construction and tenant improvements, and recommends checking with grading staff about whether a grading permit is needed.

Land use review

Type I applications such as ADUs, property line adjustments, replacement dwellings and final approvals can be submitted online, while land divisions (partitions and subdivisions) and Type II applications are in-person submittals. Middle housing land divisions follow an expedited process, and the county offers a pre-application request form and a pre-application conference waiver.

Corrections and review

When plans do not comply, staff provide the governing code citation, and revised plans are submitted through ProjectDox. Published average plan review times are 10 to 20 business days for first-round review overall, 5 to 7 business days for simple prescriptive residential, 10 for non-prescriptive residential and 20 for commercial.

Tips from SASHKOV

• Confirm the property is in unincorporated Washington County; parcels inside cities are permitted by the city.
• Upload drawings to ProjectDox as single-page landscape PDFs numbered sequentially (001, 002) with page titles, and put engineering, calculations and truss packets in the documents folder.
• Verify plat, address and land use approvals are complete before submitting for plan review.
• Grading staff can confirm before submittal whether a grading permit is needed.

Where to apply

Permitting authority: Department of Land Use & Transportation, Building Services. Online submittals: Building and Development Application Services (BDAS) with ProjectDox.