Unincorporated Spokane County: Checking Your Home Project’s Review Path

Outside every city limit in the Spokane area, one office reviews most home projects — and it is not the only office you will deal with.

Spokane County Building & Planning issues the building permit for an unincorporated address. The county’s own pages name what it does not do: electrical permits come from the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries; septic systems and private wells sit with the Spokane Regional Health District; right-of-way work goes to Public Works; and an asbestos notice goes to Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency.

This page is for a property whose Spokane mailing address is not inside a city. That postal city covers City of Spokane, Spokane Valley and county addresses alike, so settle the jurisdiction first with the jurisdiction guide and use the cluster overview for anything that is not a project. Two limits apply: this page does not decide whether your job needs a permit — the county publishes its own exemption list — and it publishes no fee total.

Quick route

Start with the address, then the project

The county’s E-Services page states the order plainly: determine whether the location is inside unincorporated Spokane County before applying through the SmartGov online portal. The application page shows a map for that purpose — the service area in blue, everything else in red — and sends anyone in the red to SCOUT, which takes a parcel number or a street address and carries the county’s own disclaimer that portions may not be current.

The county’s service-area sentence names “the unincorporated County, Town of Rockford, and Town of Spangle”, but a later line on the same page and the building FAQ add Millwood. The statements do not agree; confirm with the department rather than picking a version. Elsewhere, the nine-digit parcel number on your tax statement is the identifier the county works from, and the portal’s register searches by address, parcel number or permit type without an account. The permit-history guide reads what is already recorded against the parcel.

The county’s own seven steps

The application page lays out seven steps, and two of them carry rules worth reading twice.

1. Locate. Check SCOUT and confirm the property is in the county’s service area.
2. Create your portal account. It must be verified; the county publishes account, payment and password guides.
3. Collect every required submittal item in PDF format. The page warns that missing documents will delay processing.
4. Apply. Create the permit number in the portal using the template that matches the work.
5. Upload the PDFs to that permit number. The county’s wording: processing only begins once all required documents are submitted.
6. Receive confirmation from a permit technician by email.
7. Pay the fees in the portal. Review follows.

There is no submit-the-form-and-sort-the-plans-out-later route here. Review starts when the last document lands.

What the submittal has to contain

The county’s Electronic Submittal Requirements sheet sets the format: PDFs only; all plans in one PDF, landscape and bookmarked, at a minimum sheet size of 11x17 and 300 DPI; supplemental documents as separately named PDFs; “Not for Construction” plans rejected. Revisions return as a complete plan set, marked with a cloud and delta for every change.

The residential plan guide is a matrix. Across the top are the project types — new single-family residence, duplex or addition; foundation only; interior remodel; change of use; manufactured home; new garage, carport or accessory structure; decks, patios and roof covers; multi-use plans; over-height fence or retaining wall. Down the side are the documents: energy compliance forms, beam calculations and truss package, structural or engineering drawings including pole buildings, site plan, foundation plan, floor plan, key plan, framing plan, elevations where height increases, cross sections and details as required.

Behind it sit checklists. The site plan must carry the address, parcel size and parcel or legal description, a north arrow, the scale, property lines with dimensions, existing and proposed structures with distances from those lines, streets and rights of way, utilities including on-site septic or wells, easements, driveway access and cut-and-fill volumes — plus critical areas, buffers and flood zones where they touch the site. A remodel may use a key plan with a partial floor plan of the work area, and detail drawings cover items such as portal frames, alternate braced wall panels, window wells and deck ledger attachments.

Which application to file

The portal’s templates are grouped in families: residential (new dwelling, foundation only, alteration, accessory structure, addition, miscellaneous structures, multi-use plans, manufactured home placement and relocation), general permits (mechanical, plumbing, grading, demolition, solar, reroof and window replacement, on-site septic informational review and plan revisions), and fire permits.

Not every job needs one. The county’s Permit Exemptions handbook states the general rule — a permit is required to construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move or demolish, to change a use, or to install, alter or replace electrical, gas, mechanical or plumbing systems, and before work begins — then lists common exemptions, with Spokane County Municipal Code 3.03.040 as the complete list. The printed items include fences not over seven feet, retaining walls not over four feet, one-storey detached sheds of 200 square feet or less, and decks not more than 30 inches above adjacent grade.

Two warnings come with the handbook: exempt work may still need another department’s permit, and exemption does not authorise work that breaches the code. Emergency repairs are the one timing exception — the application is due the next business day.

Where the county’s counter stops

• Septic systems and wells are the health district’s. Spokane Regional Health District permits and inspects systems serving single-family homes, small businesses and apartment buildings that use less than 3,500 gallons of water a day; larger systems go to the state. Systems are reviewed, permitted and inspected, then hold renewable permits for one or three years, with inspection and maintenance required before renewal. The application packet includes a Water Adequacy Information Guide — the document to read before siting a system on a rural parcel. The same district inspects a portion of new wells and all decommissioned wells.
• Electrical permits are the state’s. The county’s FAQ sends them to the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries and lists its Spokane office; L&I’s rule is that a city running its own electrical programme keeps it, and every other jobsite is L&I’s.
• Right of way, approaches and floodplains go to Public Works, which takes work-in-right-of-way, special-event and approach permits through the same SmartGov portal and also issues road obstruction and floodplain development permits.
• An acre of disturbance may need state coverage from the Department of Ecology — even in phases of less than an acre. The county states it cannot determine whether coverage is necessary.
• Two rules for the design stage. Spokane County is one of six Washington counties requiring radon mitigation in new residences and residential additions, though not in the existing portion of a home. It also designates four kinds of critical area — wetlands, fish and wildlife habitat, geohazard and critical aquifer recharge — with wetland buffers from 25 to 200 feet and riparian buffers from 25 to 250 feet.

Clocks, inspections and the documents on site

A county building permit expires three years after it is issued. The director may grant one extension of up to 180 days, on a written request before it lapses showing just cause; the county states it will not notify you, so that date is yours to track. Other permits run 18 months.

Inspections run Monday to Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. A request made before 7:00 a.m. is performed that day; one made after 7:00 a.m. the next day. On site the inspector must find the address signage, the stamped approved plans printed at 11x17 or larger, the issued permit and the project documents. The county’s current policy prints a reinspection fee of $146.71 under SCC 3.08.060 when the work is not ready or corrections are not made, and requires someone 18 or older present wherever an occupied interior is entered.

One set of numbers drives the design. The county’s residential handbook gives a ground snow load of 39 pounds per square foot, a wind speed of 110 mph, seismic design category ISO 33 C — with parts of the county eligible for Category B on demonstration — severe weathering, a 24-inch frost line and a 10°F winter design temperature. The same handbook sets the basic minimum roof snow load at 30 pounds per square foot and lets the director determine it where that figure looks inadequate, while the county’s FAQ calls the 30-pound figure a ground snow load to be multiplied by 0.7. The two do not match: put the design criteria sheet in front of your designer and ask the county which governs. Where a rural parcel has no address yet, the county assigns one as part of permitting, usually from the driveway approach.

Next step

Confirm the parcel is unincorporated — SCOUT, then a call if the map and the paperwork disagree — and write the jurisdiction, parcel number, project type, scope and valuation onto one line. Then create the portal account and pull the matching template before you pay anyone for drawings. The permit-history guide shows what is already on record for the address, and the City inquiry guide and the Valley permit route mark where the county’s counter ends across the city line.

Sources

All pages, handbooks, applications and FAQ answers opened and read 3 October 2026, except where noted.

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