Permits in St. Louis City versus the county municipalities

The St. Louis region is unusual. The City of St. Louis is an independent city, separate from St. Louis County, and the county contains close to ninety municipalities that each run their own building department. A kitchen permit in Kirkwood and a kitchen permit in Tower Grove are two different processes with two different timelines, and knowing which one you are in changes your schedule by weeks.

City of St. Louis

Permits go through the Building Division at 1200 Market Street. For a standard interior remodel with electrical and plumbing, plan review typically runs four to eight weeks, and each trade pulls its own permit under the general permit. Inspections are scheduled by phone or portal and generally happen within two to four business days of a request.

The complication in the city is Cultural Resources. If the property sits in a local historic district, a preservation review district or is individually listed, exterior work goes through a separate review. That includes windows, doors, porches, siding, roofing visible from the street and sometimes rear additions. Soulard, Lafayette Square, Compton Heights, Benton Park and parts of Tower Grove East all trigger it.

What that means practically

• Exterior work in a historic district: add four to eight weeks for the review, sometimes more if it goes to a hearing
• Window replacement is often restricted to repair or in-kind replacement, so budget for restoration rather than vinyl
• Interior-only work is usually unaffected by Cultural Resources, which surprises people in a good way

The county municipalities

Each municipality has its own department, its own forms and its own personality. Kirkwood is fast and pragmatic. Webster Groves and Clayton both have architectural or historic review for exterior changes. Chesterfield is straightforward but most subdivisions add an HOA architectural committee on top, which is not a government process but will absolutely stop your project if you skip it. University City has an active Historic Preservation Commission in the designated districts.

Unincorporated St. Louis County goes through the county Department of Public Works in Clayton, which is a separate track again.

Realistic review times

These are the windows we plan around. They are sample figures based on our recent projects, not guarantees, and they move with the season and with staffing.

• Interior remodel, county municipality: 3 to 6 weeks
• Interior remodel, City of St. Louis: 4 to 8 weeks
• Addition, county municipality: 6 to 10 weeks
• Anything with historic or architectural review: add 4 to 8 weeks
• Deck permit: 2 to 4 weeks in most jurisdictions

The three mistakes we see

First, starting work without a permit because a contractor said it was faster. It is faster right up until a neighbor calls, a stop-work order goes up, and the work gets opened for inspection anyway. Second, assuming an HOA approval is optional. Third, ordering windows before historic review has approved the specification, which is an expensive way to learn what in-kind replacement means.

The permit is not the delay. Discovering you needed a different permit in week six is the delay.

Who handles it

We do. Permit applications, drawings, the submission, the responses to plan review comments, the inspection scheduling and the signed cards at the end all sit with your project manager, and the fees are a line item in your proposal rather than a surprise. You should still know which jurisdiction you are in, because it is the main thing that determines when your project can actually start.