Spokane Home Project Resources: Permits, Records, and the Right Office

Start with the address, not the drawing.

Which office reviews a project is fixed by where the property sits — the City of Spokane, the City of Spokane Valley, unincorporated Spokane County, or one of the smaller cities that run their own permit and planning functions. The City of Spokane says so on its own residential permit page: a mailing address reading “Spokane” does not mean the property is inside the city limits. Spokane County puts the same instruction at the top of its application page — verify the location is inside the service area before applying.

This page routes the common cases: which counter, portal, or agency answers which project and which question, and which office holds which record. It is written for an owner planning work, pulling a record, or trying to find out who is responsible. It does not decide whether a project needs a permit, does not interpret code or zoning, and does not replace the counter’s answer. If the jurisdiction is still open, settle that first with the guide to which government handles your address.

The address decides the office

Each authority publishes its own route.

City of Spokane — Development Services Center and Permit Center, third floor of City Hall, 808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, PermitTeam@spokanecity.org, 509.625.6300; walk-in hours 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday; online permitting for licensed contractors.

City of Spokane Valley — Permit Center, 10210 E Sprague Ave, 509-720-5240, with an online permit portal that also carries permit search and fee schedules.

Unincorporated Spokane County — Spokane County Building & Planning through the county’s Online Permit Center. The county’s application page accepts online applications within the unincorporated county, the Town of Rockford and the Town of Spangle, and sends anyone outside that service area to look up their permit application provider.

The smaller cities permit their own work. Liberty Lake’s Community Development department describes itself as the city’s planning, engineering and permitting group and manages the city’s right of way, and it publishes its own adopted codes — noting that for plumbing it uses the Uniform Plumbing Code rather than the International Plumbing Code. Millwood’s planner administers the city’s zoning, subdivision, environmental and building codes and reviews special permits and land use applications. Deer Park’s Building & Planning department publishes its own permit portal and residential guidelines. For the other towns — Cheney, Airway Heights, Medical Lake, Spangle, Rockford, Fairfield, Waverly and Latah — the county’s Code Compliance page names a separate code enforcement contact.

Boundary tools have limits of their own. Spokane County asks applicants to confirm the service area on its map, and the same page names Millwood in one line and omits it in another — a question for the county, not something to settle by picking a version. L&I, which publishes the electrical jurisdiction list, points readers to a state tax-rate lookup and says plainly that the tool is highly accurate but not guaranteed current.

The project router

Use the left column to find your case; “who acts” names the office that issues, reviews, or answers. Have the address, parcel number and scope in plain words before you call.

Five rules that catch people out

Electrical work is not one jurisdiction. L&I publishes the list of cities that issue their own electrical permits and perform their own inspections, and Spokane is on it; for every other jobsite in the state, L&I issues the permit and inspects. Its rule on who buys it: the permit must be purchased by the electrical contractor or by the property owner who will actually do the work, so a contractor you hire buys their own permit. L&I adds that most new, remodel and maintenance electrical work needs a permit and inspection.

Sewer work has two layers. The City of Spokane states that all side sewer installations require a sewer connection permit issued by the City, that right-of-way work must be done by a licensed and bonded contractor, and that a homeowner who intends to do the work must first call 509.625.7900 to schedule a consultation with a city wastewater inspector; permit questions go to Developer Services at 509.625.6342. In the Valley, the residential permit checklist requires a copy of the sewer permit, issued through the Spokane County Utility Department. The county runs sewer plan review, a sewer permit application and a Certificate of Sewer Availability through its online portal, and regulates the sewers that connect to or discharge to its regional system.

Older structures trigger extra desks. The City of Spokane states that all demolition applications, partial or total, are reviewed by Planning & Development staff, and that the Historic Preservation Office reviews structures 50 years or older that are also inside the downtown boundary map area, in a National Register historic district, or on the Spokane Register. Spokane Clean Air states that for most renovation and demolition projects you must first obtain an asbestos survey by an AHERA-certified inspector and file a Notice of Intent for asbestos removal, and that owner-occupied single-family projects get relief from the more complex survey, notification and fee requirements.

Trees are split by who owns the ground. A tree on private property needs no city tree permit, while right-of-way tree work does — except in two published cases: planting with Urban Forestry technical assistance for a homeowner at a residential location, and minor pruning meeting all three of the city’s tests.

Some questions never reach a permit counter. Property line, easement and private road disputes, along with fence location and property-line questions, go to Spokane County Civil Court. A permit office can tell you what the code requires; it cannot decide who owns what.

The record offices

Three record systems carry most of what a homeowner needs, and each has a coverage window that limits what a blank search can mean.

Parcel and tax records. Spokane County’s Property Information Search gives online access to Assessor and Treasurer valuation and property tax information, with the county’s own warning attached: portions may not be current or correct, and neither the county nor the elected officers warrant the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of the data. The county’s SCOUT parcel and address search carries a similar disclaimer and is the tool the county tells permit applicants to check first, because it names the permit application provider for a location.

Recorded documents. The County Auditor’s recording department holds the index of recorded documents and publishes maps, plats and surveys online. It also states the limit: some recorded documents, deeds of trust among them, are not publicly viewable online because they can contain personal identifiers, and public access to search and view all documents is available at the public computers in the office, with copies available for a fee.

Permit records. For City of Spokane addresses, three separate windows apply, each stated by the City: a permitting database covering 1993 to the present; a separate archive of building and engineering permit records and inspections from before 1993; and a permit activity map carrying up to three years of permit data, updated nightly. The Valley and the county each run their own search. A missing online record is not proof that work was unpermitted, and it is not proof that work was done well either — write down what you searched and when, and ask the office that holds the file.

Where a record is not online at all, the public records route applies. The City of Spokane takes requests through its online portal, with the City Clerk serving as records officer under SMC 3.01A.235 and access provided under the state Public Disclosure Act. Spokane County’s Public Records Office is the primary contact for county records requests, open 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday at 824 N Adams St, with an online portal as well.

If you are buying the property rather than working on it, the five record sets worth pulling before you budget are set out in the guide to records for a Spokane fixer-upper.

A routing worksheet

Keep this next to the project file. Fill one row per question and record the date you were told.

A pre-call workflow

1. Fix the jurisdiction and the parcel. Run the address through the jurisdiction tools, then note the municipality or “unincorporated” and the parcel number. What this proves: which permit office, code enforcement contact and records system apply. What it does not prove: that any service is connected at the address, or anything about the condition of the property.
2. Sort your question into one bucket. A project (building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, demolition, grading, right of way, trees), a record (parcel, recorded document, permit file, public records request), or a complaint or condition. The bucket determines the desk, and mixing two in one message is how questions go unanswered.
3. Collect what the counter expects before you call. Address and parcel number, a plain-language scope, a site plan or sketch with the work marked, photos taken from the ground, and the year the house was built.
4. Ask the counter the one question you cannot answer yourself. Whether the work needs a permit, who may purchase each permit, and what the office needs to see. Record the answer, the date, and who gave it, rather than relying on a rule read elsewhere and attributed to that office.
5. Check the record and its window before you rely on it. Write down the system you searched, the period it covers, and the date. A pre-1993 archive search and a 1993-to-present database search are two different searches.
6. Before anything is dug, call 811. Washington’s damage-prevention service asks anyone, including a homeowner, to contact 811 before excavation under the state dig law, RCW 19.122, and publishes a homeowner route for filing a locate ticket. Locates cover the lines the participating operators own; on private lines the responsibility changes hands.
7. Write it down and close the loop. The worksheet above is the record. When the work is done, the same file should hold the permit numbers, inspection results, closing documents and receipts.

Where to stop and hand it to someone else

• The boundary tools disagree, or the map looks wrong. Online maps are not legal determinations, and annexation and new plats are where they lag. Call the permit or planning counter and ask it to confirm.
• A rule appears to say two different things. Record both versions and ask the authority which applies. This page does that with two conflicts rather than choosing a version: the county’s Millwood wording, and the Valley’s residential permit page pointing its “email materials” link at one mailbox while its footer gives another — so the telephone number and portal are given above instead.
• Anything that would be hazardous work. Abatement, roof access, electrical work beyond a permit question, gas appliance work, structural change, and tree work near lines belong to a licensed professional. The question you take to the counter is which permit applies and who may hold it — not how to do the job.
• Illegal electrical work, or a contractor question in the unincorporated county. The county’s routing table sends electrical permit and illegal-work questions to L&I’s electrical compliance line, and contractor questions to County Planning. Never read a registration or licence as a statement about quality.
• A historic property, or one that may be. A designated property is bound by a management agreement requiring a Certificate of Appropriateness for work affecting exterior appearance, use, new construction or demolition. The preservation office covers the City of Spokane and unincorporated areas of Spokane County, and its counter is the first call.
• Septic and well questions. The health district, not the building counter. The two programmes are separate.

Next step

Pick the one project you are actually planning, run the address through the jurisdiction tools, and write the first row of the worksheet: address, jurisdiction, parcel, office, and the single question you will ask that office this week. The overview of local authorities and providers sits in the new homeowner guide, and the settling-in sequence that follows a move is on the first 30 days.

Sources

All pages opened and read 1 October 2026.

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