Richardson
City of Richardson Building Inspection Division, Community Services Department
In short
City of Richardson Building Inspection Division, Community Services Department issues 7 permits we publish for Richardson, last verified 2026-08-27. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial Building Permit | City of Richardson Building Inspection Division, Community Services Department | New finished buildings, banded on building area: $1,200 minimum to 2,500 sq ft; $200 + $0.40/sq ft to 10,000; $400 + $0.37/sq ft to 50,000; $1,400 + $0.35/sq ft to 100,000; $2,400 + $0.34/sq ft to 300,000; $8,400 + $0.32/sq ft above. New shell buildings: $950 minimum to 2,500 sq ft, then $0.30, $0.27, $0.25, $0.24 and $0.22 per square foot on the same bands | per permit | 2026-08-27 |
| Commercial Electrical Installation Permitonly if it applies to you | City of Richardson Building Inspection Division, Community Services Department | $150 minimum fee, commercial | per permit | 2026-08-27 |
| Interior Finish and Alteration Permit | City of Richardson Building Inspection Division, Community Services Department | Interior finish of a shell building: $500 to 2,500 sq ft, then $500 + $0.12 per square foot. Commercial additions, alterations, repairs, remodelling and fire damage: 1% of market value, minimum $225, not to exceed the permit fee for a new structure | per permit | 2026-08-27 |
| Certificate of Occupancy | City of Richardson Building Inspection Division, Community Services Department | $100 per certificate, waived with a building permit | not stated in the published schedule | 2026-08-27 |
| Sign Permitonly if it applies to you | City of Richardson Building Inspection Division, Community Services Department | $50–$100 per sign, by type | per permit | 2026-08-27 |
| Miscellaneous Commercial Permitonly if it applies to you | City of Richardson Building Inspection Division, Community Services Department | $50–$200 per permit, by work type | per permit | 2026-08-27 |
| Contractor Registration | City of Richardson Building Inspection Division, Community Services Department | $100 per registration or renewal | not stated in the published schedule | 2026-08-27 |
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
Commercial Building Permit
These bands have not moved since 2015 — the 2023 resolution and the 2025 codification both carried them across unchanged, which is worth knowing because almost everything else on the schedule did move. The $1,200 minimum on anything up to 2,500 square feet is the figure to plan around: it is the highest small-building floor in this dataset, so a 1,000 square foot coffee shop pays the same as a 2,500 square foot one. The permit is a COMBINATION permit covering building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and concrete work shown on the submitted plans. Work not on the plans, or started after final inspection, needs its own permit, and starting before the permit issues may double the fee.
Commercial Electrical Installation Permit
$150 minimum on a commercial electrical installation, against $100 residential. This appears in the codified schedule and not in the 2015 PDF at all, which is one reason the older document was an unsafe guide. It applies to electrical work taken on its own — electrical shown on the plans of a new building permit is already covered by that combination permit. A commercial rainwater harvesting system inspection is $150 on the same chapter, and a commercial irrigation permit $150 under section 23-292(b).
Interior Finish and Alteration Permit
This is where Richardson's fees actually moved. Finishing a shell used to be $250 up to 2,500 square feet and a flat 10 cents a foot above; it is now $500 and $500 plus 12 cents a foot — so a 6,000 square foot fit-out went from $600 to $1,220, roughly double. The minimum on a commercial alteration went from $75 to $225 in the same period. The one per cent rate itself is unchanged, as is the cap at what a new structure would cost. The schedule warns that an undervalued estimate will be recalculated on nationally published building valuation data, so declaring low does not help.
Certificate of Occupancy
$100, and the codified wording is precise: the fee is WAIVED when the certificate is affiliated with a building permit. So a tenant fitting out under a permit pays nothing extra, while a tenant taking on finished premises and changing nothing pays $100. Unchanged in amount since 2015, though the 2015 wording put it the other way round — chargeable where no building permit had been issued — which comes to the same thing. A commercial utility release is a separate $100 and reinspection $50.
Sign Permit
$100 to erect, alter, replace or relocate a permanent sign, $50 for a temporary sign and $75 to repair one — none of them changed since 2015. The expensive lines are the exceptions and they are worth planning around: a sign variance application under section 18-27 is $250, filing an appeal to the Sign Control Board is another $250, and a Master Sign Plan through Development Services is $500. Richardson runs the Sign Control Board as a standing body and it hears real cases, so treat a departure from the sign ordinance as a budget item rather than an edge case.
Miscellaneous Commercial Permit
$150 for a miscellaneous commercial permit covering work not part of a building permit — doubled from $75 in 2015. A commercial fence permit also doubled, from $50 to $100, and a detached structure over 150 square feet from $100 to $200. Flat items that did not move: demolition $50, a moving permit $75, a temporary building $50, concrete $50 and a commercial antenna or dish antenna $50 each. Commercial roof recovering is one per cent of market value with a $150 minimum. An apartment inspection is $15 a unit annually under section 6-326(c).
Contractor Registration
$100, unchanged since 2015, and codification settled a question the old PDF left open: section 6-116 calls it a Contractor Registration AND RENEWAL fee, so the same $100 covers both. It is a single line with no trade breakdown, unlike Irving at $125 per trade or Converse at $100 initial and $75 to renew.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Richardson
- Phone
- Not verified — use the website
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 Richardson Code of Ordinances, Appendix B — Master Fee Schedule (adopted by Ord. No. 4559, § 2, 15 September 2025; amended by Ord. No. 4560, § 1, 13 October 2025)City of Richardson · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-27
- City of Richardson Community Services Department Building Permit Fee Schedule, effective 1 October 2015City of Richardson Community Services Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-26
- City of Richardson Resolution No. 23-21, providing an amended fee schedule for building inspection fees and permits, adopted 28 August 2023, effective for applications submitted on or after 1 October 2023 — SUPERSEDED by Appendix BCity of Richardson City Council · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-27
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