Lubbock
City of Lubbock Department of Building Safety
In short
City of Lubbock Department of Building Safety issues 6 permits we publish for Lubbock, last verified 2026-08-24. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sign Permitonly if it applies to you | City of Lubbock Department of Building Safety | $75 per site | per permit | 2026-08-24 |
| Commercial Building Permit | City of Lubbock Department of Building Safety | $0.20 per square foot of gross floor area under roof for new commercial and additions; $0.10 per square foot for a shell or a tenant finish-out; commercial alterations with no change in floor area are $2.25 per $1,000 of construction valuation. Minimum permit fee $75, plus plan review at 25% of the permit fee | per permit; an expired permit renews at 50% of the original fee | 2026-08-24 |
| Certificate of Occupancy | City of Lubbock Department of Building Safety | $0–$200 included in the permit fee, or investigative | not stated in the published schedule | 2026-08-24 |
| Mechanical, Plumbing and Electrical Permitonly if it applies to you | City of Lubbock Department of Building Safety | $0.07 per square foot of gross floor area under roof for new construction, additions and full system replacement, in each of mechanical, plumbing and electrical; flat $75 for individual equipment permits. Minimum permit fee $75 | per permit | 2026-08-24 |
| Grit Interceptor and Oil/Water Separator Permitonly if it applies to you | City of Lubbock Department of Building Safety | $75 per permit | per permit | 2026-08-24 |
| Contractor Registration | City of Lubbock Department of Building Safety | $0–$65 per year | 1 year, running 1 January to 31 December | 2026-08-24 |
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
Sign Permit
$75 per SITE, inclusive of wall and freestanding signs alike — the only schedule in this dataset that charges once for a whole site rather than per sign or per square foot. A unit with a fascia sign, a monument sign and a projecting blade pays $75 in total, against $600 for the same three signs in Converse. If you are planning several signs, permit them together.
Commercial Building Permit
Twenty cents a square foot for new commercial work and half that for a shell or a tenant finish-out — so a 4,000 square foot fit-out is $400 plus $100 plan review, which is among the cheapest in this dataset. Where there is no change in floor area the method switches to valuation at $2.25 per $1,000. The plan review structure rewards accuracy: the first revision is free, and every revision after that, plus any change order, costs 5 per cent of the building permit fee. The penalty for building without a permit is the harshest recorded here and escalates by SITE: 200 per cent of the fee on the first, 300 per cent on a second, 400 per cent on a third and any further site.
Certificate of Occupancy
Free with a commercial building permit — the schedule says the certificate is included in the permit fee, so a business that permits its fit-out properly pays nothing extra. The charge appears only when the city has to investigate: $200 for a single building, or $200 for the first plus $75 for each subsequent building. That is the fee for occupying without having gone through the process, and it is the reason to pull the permit rather than skip it.
Mechanical, Plumbing and Electrical Permit
Seven cents a square foot for each of the three trades on new work — so a 4,000 square foot restaurant pays $280 across all three on top of the $400 building permit, but the $75 minimum applies to each, meaning small jobs are floored rather than metered. Flat $75 items worth knowing for a kitchen: a commercial vent hood permit, a refrigeration equipment replacement, a gas line, a water line and a water heater are $75 each. Reinspections escalate $50, $100, $150, then $200 for the fourth and every one after.
Grit Interceptor and Oil/Water Separator Permit
$75, covering a grit interceptor, an oil/water separator or a sample port on the same line — so the vehicle workshop's separator and the wash bay's interceptor are priced identically to any other plumbing item. It sits under plumbing rather than under environmental health, which is where most operators look first and is why it gets missed. This is an installation permit rather than an annual charge.
Contractor Registration
$65 a year for every contractor except mechanical, electrical and plumbing, which register free — the schedule states plainly that their fees are waived by state law. The insurance requirement is the substantial part rather than the fee: a $20,000 compliance bond or $100,000 of general liability cover. The registration period is fixed to the calendar year rather than to the date of issue, so registering in November buys two months. Changing contractor mid-job costs $250 or the original fee, whichever is lower, where the scope does not change; where it does, the full permit and plan review fees start again.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Lubbock
- Phone
- Not verified — use the website
- Website
- www.mylubbock.us/923/Permits
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 Lubbock Building Safety Fee Schedule, 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026 (adopted under budget Ordinance No. 2024-O0111)City of Lubbock Department of Building Safety · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-24
Other offices serving Lubbock
The full permit list for this jurisdiction
Industry permit lists that include this agency
Texas jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.