What do these permits involve in Lewisville?

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Commercial Building Permit

The same valuation table covers new construction, an alteration or finish-out and a shell building, and the permit INCLUDES mechanical, electrical and plumbing — which is what makes Lewisville cheap relative to cities that charge each trade again. Work the figure in two steps: take the square-foot cost for your use group and construction type from the ICC valuation table (a restaurant in type VB is $176.40 a foot, a mercantile use $117.89, a moderate-hazard warehouse $76.53), multiply by area to get the valuation, then read the step rate table. A 2,000 square foot restaurant fit-out at type VB values around $352,800 and costs roughly $2,410. Shell-only buildings deduct 20 per cent of construction cost before the table is applied, per the Building Inspection Division schedule. The step rate itself is confirmed by the city's Fee Schedule effective 6 July 2026, which is the adopted instrument — section 2-201 of the code stopped carrying fees in 2020, when Ordinance 0258-20-ORD repealed the in-code schedule and moved it to a document maintained by the city manager.

Sign Permit

A flat $100 for a sign, $50 for a banner sign and $25 for a grand opening — with a separate $25 special event administrative fee where the signage is part of an event. A sign contractor must hold the city's $80 annual registration to pull the permit. The codified section 2-201 prices signs quite differently, at 45 cents a square foot per FACE with a $30 minimum and a plan-checking surcharge of half the permit fee on illuminated signs over 100 square feet; the departmental schedule supersedes that for the permit itself, but the sign variance fee of $350 in section 2-201 has no counterpart on the building schedule and still applies.

Certificate of Occupancy

$100, and every new commercial tenant needs one before opening — a change of occupant triggers it even where no building work is done. The figure was in doubt here because the Building Inspection Division schedule omits the certificate entirely; the city's own Fee Schedule, effective 6 July 2026, carries it plainly at $100 under its own heading. Budget for what surrounds it rather than the certificate itself: reinspections escalate at $50, then $75, then $100, and both out-of-hours inspections and any inspection for which no fee is specified are charged at the top-of-range overtime rate for a building inspector plus 18 per cent, which the schedule never converts into dollars. Ask what that hourly rate is before booking anything outside business hours.

Electrical, Plumbing and Mechanical Permit

Four cents a square foot for each trade with a $100 commercial floor — but only where the trade work stands alone, because a building permit already includes mechanical, electrical and plumbing. The city's Fee Schedule effective 6 July 2026 sets this rate, raising it from the three and a half cents in the Building Inspection Division schedule of January 2024. A miscellaneous permit in any of the three trades is a flat $100 commercial, as are an electrical meter, an electrical panel, a water heater, a plumbing line repair and a plumbing gas test. Other commercial flat items on the same schedule: a roof $200 and a swimming pool $300 including MEP, then at $100 each irrigation, a fence, a screening wall, flatwork, solar panels, a carport or patio cover, a deck over 30 inches, a retaining wall over 48 inches, window replacement, a construction or sales trailer, an accessory building and a miscellaneous building permit. Demolition — interior, whole building or pool — is $50 each, as are a driveway, foundation repair and siding. Reinspections run $50, then $75, then $100.

Backflow Testing and Tester Registration

$25 for each backflow device tested and $100 a year for a backflow tester to register with the city. The $25 is corroborated outside the code: Lewisville's own guidance for backflow test submittals states the same $25 filing fee per test, submitted through BSI Online. The device charge recurs annually and is easy to overlook on a site with several assemblies — a restaurant with a kitchen, an irrigation system and a boiler feed can hold three. Your tester must be registered; asking to see it is quicker than a failed filing.

Permit	Issuing agency	Fee	Renews	Last checked
Commercial Building Permit	City of Lewisville Building Inspection Division	Valuation from the most recently adopted International Code Council Building Valuation Data Table by use group and construction type, then the step rate table: $125 to $10,000 of valuation; $125 plus $14.00 per additional $1,000 to $25,000; $391.25 plus $10.10 per $1,000 to $50,000; $643.75 plus $7.00 per $1,000 to $100,000; $993.75 plus $5.60 per $1,000 to $500,000; $3,233.75 plus $4.75 per $1,000 to $1,000,000; $5,608.75 plus $3.15 per $1,000 above. Shell-only buildings deduct 20 per cent of construction cost first	per permit	2026-08-27
Sign Permitonly if it applies to you	City of Lewisville Building Inspection Division	$25–$100 per permit, by sign type	per permit	2026-08-27
Certificate of Occupancy	City of Lewisville Building Inspection Division	$100 per certificate	per certificate	2026-08-27
Electrical, Plumbing and Mechanical Permitonly if it applies to you	City of Lewisville Building Inspection Division	$0.04 per square foot for each of electrical, plumbing and mechanical, minimum $100 commercial; a miscellaneous permit in any of the three trades is $100	per permit	2026-08-27
Backflow Testing and Tester Registration	City of Lewisville Health Services Division	$25–$100 per device annually, or per tester registration	1 year	2026-08-27

Business licenses and permits in Lewisville, Texas

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Permits that apply to every type of business in Lewisville