Cuyahoga County
Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works, Sanitary Engineering
In short
Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works, Sanitary Engineering issues 2 permits we publish for Cuyahoga County, last verified 2026-09-30. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.
What this agency issues
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sewer Contractor's Licenseonly if it applies to you | Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works, Sanitary Engineering | $80 per license on the 2026 Sewer Permit & Inspection Fee Rate Schedule, which County Code §705.06(A) enacts in ordinance text with effect from 1 January 2026 | issued against the 2026 rate schedule that County Code §705.06(A) enacts with effect from 1 January 2026; County Code §705.06(B) allows the Director of Public Works to raise these fees from 1 January 2027, no more than once in any twelve-month period, by the cumulative CPI increase where that increase exceeds 2.0 per cent, capped at 5 per cent a year | 2026-09-30 |
| Sanitary and/or Storm Sewer Permitonly if it applies to you | Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works, Sanitary Engineering | Per the 2026 Sewer Permit & Inspection Fee Rate Schedule that County Code §705.06(A) enacts in ordinance text with effect from 1 January 2026: sewer permit fee $315; mainline construction inspection fee for subdivision, commercial, industrial and mainline tap-in connection work $560 per day, or $105 per hour for overtime, holidays and weekends; a no-show fee of $210 for failing to appear for a previously scheduled mainline inspection; $630 for commencing work without a sewer permit, which the schedule describes as 'this penalty fee is double the cost of the sewer permit'; and $1,120 for commencing work without a scheduled inspector, 'double the cost of the mainline inspection day fee'. | issued per connection or project against the 2026 rate schedule enacted by County Code §705.06(A) with effect from 1 January 2026; §705.06(B) allows the Director of Public Works to raise these fees from 1 January 2027, once in any twelve-month period, by CPI where CPI exceeds 2.0 per cent and capped at 5 per cent a year | 2026-09-30 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
About each permit
Sewer Contractor's License
A contractor building or connecting to sewers in the county sewer system holds a sewer contractor's license from the Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works, Sanitary Engineering, and the county publishes a Licensed Sewer Builders List of the firms that hold one. The $80 amount comes from the County Code itself rather than from a fee-schedule page, which is why it is stated with an ordinance date: §705.06(A) provides that 'Effective January 1, 2026, the Cuyahoga County sewer permit fees, inspection fees, overtime/holiday/weekend inspection fees, and contractor license fees shall be as follows: 2026 Sewer Permit & Inspection Fee Rate Schedule', and then prints the schedule in the ordinance text, with the contractor's license fee at $80. That section was enacted by Ordinance No. O2025-0008 on 9 December 2025, effective 10 December 2025, and the separate 2026 Sewer Permit & Inspection Fee Rate Schedule that Public Works links from its Permits and Licenses page matches it line for line. One forward-looking clause is worth diarising: §705.06(B) provides that 'Effective January 1, 2027, the Director of Public Works may increase the fees described in paragraph A of this Section no more frequently than once every 12-month period by an amount not to exceed the cumulative percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the last year in which the fees were increased where such increase in the CPI exceeds two percent (2.0%), provided that such fee increase shall not exceed five percent (5%) per year,' so the 2026 figures are settled for 2026 but a capped increase becomes possible from the start of 2027. Public Works also makes the layering explicit: 'Obtaining the required plan approvals and service connection permits from the Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works does not relieve a contractor from the responsibility to obtain local permits and/or utility company approvals.' Permit coordination is on 216-443-8209 and plan review on 216-443-8205.
Sanitary and/or Storm Sewer Permit
Connecting new or altered premises to a public sewer in the county sewer system draws a written permit from the Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works before any ground is broken. Public Works states the rule as 'No unauthorized person shall uncover, make any connections with or opening into, use, alter or disturb any public sewer or appurtenance thereof without first obtaining a written permit from all appropriate authorities', and that 'Permits for storm or sanitary service connections are required for all facilities or structures desiring use of a public sewer.' The figures rest on ordinance text rather than on a PDF: County Code §705.06(A) enacts the 2026 Sewer Permit & Inspection Fee Rate Schedule in the Code itself with effect from 1 January 2026, and the schedule Public Works publishes matches it line for line. The permit itself is $315; what makes a sewer job expensive is the inspection side, at $560 for a mainline construction inspection day and $105 an hour for overtime, holiday and weekend work, with $210 charged for failing to appear for an inspection already booked. The two penalty lines are set as multiples rather than as flat sums, which makes them unusually predictable: $630 for commencing work without a sewer permit is double the permit fee, and $1,120 for commencing work without a scheduled inspector is double the mainline inspection day fee. Forms can come from either end of the chain — 'Service Connection Permit forms may be obtained from the issuing municipal authority and/or the Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works' — and a county permit does not stand in for the municipal one: Public Works states that its approvals 'do[] not relieve a contractor from the responsibility to obtain local permits and/or utility company approvals.' Rates are fixed for 2026, with §705.06(B) allowing a capped, CPI-linked increase from 1 January 2027.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Cuyahoga County
- Phone
- 216-443-8209
Contact details are taken from the agency’s own site or its published fee schedule. Where we have not verified a phone number we leave it blank rather than guess.
Sources
Every fee and term above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.
- Cuyahoga County Code Chapter 705, §705.06 'Sewer Inspection, Permit, and Licensing Fees' — the 2026 Sewer Permit & Inspection Fee Rate Schedule enacted in ordinance text by Ordinance No. O2025-0008 (enacted 9 December 2025, effective 10 December 2025), and the §705.06(B) CPI escalator from 1 January 2027Cuyahoga County, Ohio · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-30
- Permits and Licenses — Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works: the sewer permit requirement, the Licensed Sewer Builders List, the statement that county approvals do not relieve a contractor of local permits, and the 2026 sewer permit inspection fees linkCuyahoga County Department of Public Works, Ohio · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-30
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