Salt Lake City separates building-code administration from land-use review. Building Services handles construction permits, electronic plan review, and inspections, while the Planning Division administers zoning, subdivisions, design review, conditional uses, planned developments, and historic-preservation applications. Building and planning applications are submitted through the City’s Citizen Access Portal, with ProjectDox used for electronic construction-document review when plans are required.
Zoning should be checked early in a project. Each property has a base zoning district that controls allowed uses and development standards, while overlay districts can add supplemental requirements. Salt Lake City uses overlays for locally designated historic resources, airport flight-path protection, and other location-specific conditions. The City’s official zoning map and Planning resources help applicants identify these constraints before submitting plans.
Historic properties have a particularly important additional approval process. Exterior work on locally designated landmarks and properties within local historic districts generally requires a Certificate of Appropriateness before the related building permit can be completed. Depending on project scope, approval may be handled administratively or require Historic Landmark Commission review.
Construction affecting streets, sidewalks, alleys, curbs, driveway approaches, or utility areas within the public right-of-way requires separate Engineering approval. Projects that affect traffic, sidewalks, or bike lanes may also need traffic-control authorization. Applicants can start with the City’s Permits & Licensing resources and then confirm zoning, historic, utility, and public-way requirements for the site.