Inside City Limits, Orange Building Permits Are a City Job

Whether the city or the county handles your project comes down to a line on a map, the city limits. Inside the City of Orange, building permits go through the permit desk at 303 N. 8th Street. You can drop applications and payments there in person, mail them to P.O. Box 520 in Orange (zip 77631), or email your application and construction documents straight to the office. Pay by card and the city adds a 2.5% processing fee.

One permit usually isn't enough. The city pulls electrical, mechanical, and plumbing-and-gas work out as their own separate permits, and a commercial build has to come in with full construction documents for review. So a kitchen remodel that adds a gas line and a circuit isn't one form, it's three. The work is reviewed against the codes Orange has adopted, currently the 2021 International Building Codes and the 2023 National Electric Code.

If your lot sits past the city line, none of this applies; you're in Orange County's lane instead, with its own development and floodplain rules. When you're not sure which side you're on, City Hall at 409-883-1081 can tell you before you fill out a single form.