John Elliott wrote:Officially, most counties are going to have building departments that issue permits. Even in places with small counties (<5000 population), they may not have staff to do it, but rely on a neighboring, more populous county to do the permit review.
In my experience, out west (California and Nevada) is building permit hell. If you don't believe me, go look up the code requirements for mailboxes in some California cities. If they are going to come out with a tape measure to make sure your mailbox is up to code, not too low and not too high, you can imagine what else they will hassle you about (everything).
On the other hand, in the South (SC and GA), there is so much anti-gubmint feeling, that building departments are very circumspect. When I went to build a garage, they told me that the permit and inspection process was optional, since it was not intended to be an inhabited structure. When they came and inspected the framing, the inspector suggested that it would be a good idea to add some hurricane clips to join the trusses to the stud walls. Again, just a suggestion, not a code requirement that had to be done before I could proceed.
If you are looking for a place where the building department will be reasonable and helpful with your outside-of-the-box ideas, try the southern states.
Thanks a bunch, more specific information by other permies would be greatly appreciated. I am fully aware of the wide differences in code from state to state, county to county. I am looking for answers more closely/specific to the questions I asked in original posting.
