The State of Oregon provides the City of Salem building jurisdiction with a tool in which to apply for permits online. This tool is supported by the state and is only available to licensed contractors at this time. You can pay for permits with credit or debit cards and will receive an authorization to begin work immediately upon successful processing of your payment.
The online application minimally requires a contact name and fax number in order for the City of Salem jurisdiction to reply with the actual permit document for your records.
You may apply for limited-scope over-the-counter electrical, mechanical, and plumbing permits on the epermitting website. This site offers permits that do not require plans, calculations, or other agency approval.
You begin the online application process by entering an address where the work is to take place. The City of Salem is currently sending the state eligible property address data once each month. This could mean an address may not be available for online permitting right away. Please contact us at 503-588-6256 if you find that an address is not available so that we can earmark it for future upload to the state. Another reason an address may not be available is that it is in another jurisdiction that may not be participating in the state's epermitting application.
It will then ask for CCB number. Epermitting directly ties into the State of Oregon's Construction Contractors Board to verify this information real-time. If the information it fills in upon entry of your CCB is not current, please select the "Contact Us" link on epermitting for contact information for making updates. The only exception to providing your CCB number is if you are applying for an Electrical Permit. In this case, you will be asked to provide the Electrician's Building Codes Division (BCD) license number (not CCB number), ie. 24-10C -- you must enter this license number just as it appears including the hyphen and the letter designation for it to validate. The other contractor information will auto-populate upon verification including Supervising Electrician currently on file with Building Codes Division. If the Supervising Electrician information is not current, please contact Building Codes Division to update.
After filling in all required fields, designated by RED asterisks - it will move you to the permit information page which you must read and accept before you can proceed. This is important information to the application process. The application will be next. Not all services are available for each permit type - if this is the case, it will be indicated and you will need to apply by mail-in or come to our office to apply at Salem City Hall, 555 Liberty St SE, Salem OR 97301.
Upon completing the application process, you will input all your payment information. Your payment will be submitted and verified, and will result in an Authorization to Begin Work which should be posted at the jobsite until your actual permit is received. You can call in for inspections at 503-588-6256 48 hours following submission to allow for payment and permit processing into our system.
Apply online at buildingpermits.oregon.gov.