Working out every approval a Vermont project actually needs, in what order, and how long each one really takes.
That surprises people, and it causes more trouble than any other fact about building in Vermont. Most towns have no building department at all. Permitting here is a stack of unrelated regimes with different triggers, different agencies, and no coordination between them.
Two things follow. A town having no zoning never means a project needs no permits: the Division of Fire Safety is the practical statewide authority for essentially all non-residential construction, and a municipal building in a town with no bylaws at all still needs a state construction permit. And nobody assembles the full list for you, because each agency answers only its own question. Assembling the stack is the architect's job.
So we run every regime, and we say in writing which ones do not apply and why. A permit list that only shows the hits is not a permit list.
Occupancy classification, construction type, height and area, egress, and fire protection, current to the 2025 Vermont Fire and Building Safety Code, the 2021 International Building Code, and NFPA 1 and 101. It goes on the cover sheet and it satisfies what the state plan reviewer is required to check.
Every regime, hit or miss, with the trigger, the reason, who issues it, the fee and how it is calculated, the duration, and what it depends on. Then a critical path built backwards from the construction season, with appeal periods shown as their own bars rather than folded into an approval date.
Zoning permits where the town has bylaws, and conditional use, site plan, subdivision, or overlay review where the project triggers it. A DRB hearing adds better than forty days, and a zoning permit does not take effect for fifteen days after issuance while the appeal period runs. We put every conversation with a zoning administrator in writing the same day and copy the client.
Division of Fire Safety construction permits, plus the separate electrical, plumbing, fire alarm, sprinkler, elevator, boiler, and LP gas permits. Those trade permits can be issued before the construction permit, which is worth knowing when a mechanical sub is waiting.
Shoreland Protection within 250 feet of a lake or pond over ten acres, wastewater and potable water supply on any change in design flow including adding a bathroom, stormwater at one acre disturbed or half an acre of new impervious, and wetlands, river corridor, and flood hazard where they apply. An asbestos survey is required before any renovation or demolition, with no building-age threshold.
Federal money or a federal permit triggers Section 106; state money triggers state historic review. Both now run through the CHAMP portal. Vermont Access Rules and the 2010 ADA Standards, including path of travel and the twenty percent rule on alterations, and Title II self-evaluation for municipal buildings.
An RBES or CBES certificate is a condition of occupancy, not a formality, and since July 2026 either the 2020 or 2024 standard may be used. We track the post-issuance obligations too, including recording deadlines that quietly make a permit ineffective if they are missed.
Division of Fire Safety construction permits across three Glover municipal buildings, processed to issued in twelve days each. Shoreland Protection permitting on lakeside work in Westmore and Newport, including a case where the city would approve but not issue the local permit until the state permit existed, a forty-nine day hold. Vermont Division for Historic Preservation review on window replacement at Glover. VTrans review on the Glover salt shed. Where a project reaches Act 250 jurisdiction we identify it early, obtain a jurisdictional opinion, and bring in Act 250 counsel to prepare and file the application.
See our projects →Usually comes before
Feasibility & Facility Assessment
Existing conditions, code and accessibility review, and options with order-of-magnitude costs. Sold on its own, and how most bigger jobs start.
Usually comes after
Architectural Design
The full arc, schematic design through construction documents. The anchor service — everything else is upstream or downstream of it.
Next step
Tell us the town, the building, and what you want to do to it. The permit matrix is usually the first thing we produce.