Department of Permits & Inspections

City Hall Building
801 Crawford St, 4th floor
Portsmouth, VA. 23704
(757) 393-8531
Emergency after hours assistance please call (757) 393-5300

Director
Douglas K. Smith

Mission Statement:

Our mission is to administer and enforce the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code and its related laws and ordinances as mandated by state and local regulations. The Department will endeavor to provide services in a professional, courteous, and timely manner, as well as provide efficient response to citizen concerns and requests for information.

Our business is to enforce the code in a fair and equitable manner while providing for consumer protection, public safety, sustainable new construction, and preservation of the city’s neighborhoods and historic character. Through fair and equitable enforcement of the code, adhering to our core values of honesty, integrity, and competency, we will transform our neighborhoods and make Portsmouth the "City of Choice" in which to live, work, visit, and invest.

Our mission will be realized by emphasizing:

• Employment of quality personnel and providing them with the opportunity for professional development, continuing education, and training.
• Educating our customers, citizens, contractors and city staff members, through various publications and meetings.
• Taking an aggressive, yet flexible, common sense approach to code enforcement that attempts to achieve the intent of the code.

Services Provided:

The Department of Permits & Inspections encompasses the divisions of Building, Environmental/Zoning, and Rental Inspections. The Building Inspections Division enforces the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (USBC) as it relates to the construction, alteration, renovation, or the change of use of buildings. It is this division’s job to ensure that a structure is sound and reasonably safe from structural failure, accidental fire, and other hazards. The Building Inspections Division determines permit applicant qualifications, reviews construction documents, issues permits, and performs inspections for compliance with USBC standards and local ordinances, as well as other related activity, as set forth in the Code of Virginia.

The Environmental/Zoning and Rental Inspections Division enforces Part III of the USBC, referred to as the Virginia Maintenance Code, as well as pertinent local ordinances as set forth in the Code of Virginia. This division performs inspection of all existing properties, owner-occupied or rental, to ensure that they meet the minimum code requirements and standards for premises, structures, ventilation, space, heating, sanitation, protection from the elements, inoperable motor vehicles, weeds and debris, safety from fire, and other hazards to protect the health, safety and welfare of our citizens. Inspectors also perform zoning investigations. Through this program the division provides oversight of the City’s Historic Districts and Downtown Design Districts, citing owners who perform exterior alterations without proper approval and/or building permits. This division also enforces the sign ordinance. Properties that have been illegally converted also come under the purview of this division for notification of violations of the City’s zoning code.