Knoxville
City of Knoxville Plans Review & Inspections
In short
City of Knoxville Plans Review & Inspections issues 3 permits we publish for Knoxville, last verified 2026-09-05. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Occupancy | City of Knoxville Plans Review & Inspections | Reissuing a Certificate of Occupancy where no work was performed costs $100. A Zoning Compliance letter issued without a Certificate of Occupancy is $100 (non-residential) or $50 (residential). | issued once per qualifying occupancy | 2026-09-05 |
| Commercial Building Permit | City of Knoxville Plans Review & Inspections | Building permit: 0.55% of valuation, $50 minimum, up to $500,000; $2,750 + 0.45% of the amount over $500,000 up to $2M; $9,500 + 0.35% over $2M up to $20M; $72,500 + 0.25% over $20M. Plan review runs alongside it at 0.1% of valuation ($50 min) up to $500,000, then $500 + 0.075% to $2M, $1,625 + 0.05% to $20M, $10,625 + 0.025% above that. A trade permit (mechanical/electrical/plumbing) tied to the building permit is billed at the greater of 0.15% of total project valuation or 0.5% of the trade's own valuation, $55 minimum; a stand-alone trade permit is 0.5% of its valuation, $55 minimum. Reinspection is $50 (the first is free); a permit renewal is 25% of the original fee, $50–$1,000. | one-time, per project | 2026-09-05 |
| Sign Permit | City of Knoxville Plans Review & Inspections | $75 sign review fee, plus a permit fee of 0.5% of project valuation, $200 minimum. | one-time, per sign | 2026-09-05 |
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
Certificate of Occupancy
The Development Services Fee Schedule 2024 was checked in full for a standalone Certificate of Occupancy line and has none — it prices only a reissuance ($100, where no work was performed) and a Zoning Compliance letter issued without a certificate ($100 non-residential, $50 residential). An initial Certificate of Occupancy most likely rides on the building-permit and final-inspection fee already charged for the underlying project rather than billing again on its own, though the schedule does not spell that out directly.
Commercial Building Permit
Knox County's own fee schedule uses a different valuation table and applies only to unincorporated county areas outside Knoxville city limits.
Sign Permit
An earlier web-search synthesis of this fee garbled it into a single '$75 + $5/$1,000' formula — that is incorrect; the two-part review-plus-permit structure above comes from a direct read of the city's own current PDF.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Knoxville
- Phone
- (865) 215-4311
- Website
- permits.knoxvilletn.gov/
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.
- City of Knoxville — Development Services Fee Schedule 2024City of Knoxville, Plans Review & Inspections · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-05
Other offices serving Knoxville
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Tennessee jurisdictions
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