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Residential building permit in Walla Walla, Washington

Permit to build, alter, add to or move a house or other residential structure in Walla Walla, under the International Residential Code adopted at WWMC 15.04.013.

Verified 2026-09-16 · Source

When you need this permit

  • WWMC 15.04.013 adopts “The 2021 Edition of the International Residential Code, published by the International Code Council, Inc.” with named appendices, as amended by the applicable Chapter 51-51 WAC layer.
  • THE DESIGN CRITERIA ARE IN THE GENERAL PROVISIONS, NOT IN AN AMENDED TABLE R301.2, which is where every other city in this Washington set puts them. WWMC 15.04.005(B) publishes: ground snow load 30 lbs./ft.2 with the note “Minimum roof snow load to be thirty lbs./ft.2 in the city of Walla Walla”; “110 mph ultimate wind speed for Residential/Commercial”; seismic design category D, with no sub-category where SeaTac publishes D2; weathering Severe; frost line depth 24 inches; termites Slight to Moderate; decay None to slight; winter design temperature 10 degrees; ice shield underlayment required; flood hazard given as “2003 1992 FIRM”, two years in one cell, quoted as printed; AIR FREEZE INDEX 1000; mean annual temperature 50.2 degrees.
  • THE CODE PUBLISHES ITS OWN TIE-BREAKER, AND THE ORDER IS EXPLICIT. WWMC 15.04.005(A): the general provisions beat any referenced code, and “In the event of conflict between the following identified codes, the code first listed shall have priority over those latter listed: the International Building Code, the International Residential Code, the International Mechanical Code, the International Fire Code, and, then, the Uniform Plumbing Code.” Wenatchee publishes the same idea in different words; the ORDER is what matters and it is specific to each city.
  • A THREE-TRIGGER EXPIRY, AND ANY ONE OF THEM VOIDS THE PERMIT. WWMC 15.04.005(G): “All permits shall expire by limitation and be declared void if: 1. Work is not started within one hundred eighty days of obtaining a permit, 2. Work is abandoned for one hundred eighty days or more after beginning work, or 3. After two years from the date of permit issuance, regardless of whether the work is finished.” The third is absolute — steady visible progress does not save a permit at two years. This matches the structure Puyallup and Wenatchee publish, and differs from SeaTac, which times a permit by what it builds rather than by whether work is happening.
  • RE-PERMITTING AFTER EXPIRY IS CHEAPER THAN A FRESH PERMIT, AND THE CODE PICKS THE CHEAPER OF TWO MEASURES FOR YOU. WWMC 15.04.005(G): “If a permit is expired for time, a new permit shall be obtained for one-half the permit fee or based on the value of the remainder of the work to finish the original permit, whichever is less.”
  • AN APPROVED APPLICATION CAN STILL GO VOID BEFORE YOU HOLD A PERMIT. WWMC 15.04.005(G): “When an applicant has been notified that their permit application has been approved and is ready to purchase, the applicant shall obtain the permit within thirty days of notification or said permit application shall become void.”
  • WWMC 15.04.005(F): “City of Walla Walla development permits shall be issued only to the property owner or the property owner's authorized agent.”
  • A LICENSED WASHINGTON DESIGN PROFESSIONAL IS REQUIRED ABOVE A SIZE THRESHOLD. WWMC 15.04.005(D) requires a Washington design professional licensed under Chapter 18.08 RCW, 308-12 WAC or 18.43 RCW to prepare or oversee plans for buildings at or above the threshold the subsection sets; the full threshold text runs past the extract read for this entry and the exact cut-off is NOT ASSERTED here.
  • WWMC 15.04.005(C): development in a designated flood plain “shall comply with Chapter 21.10 and the construction specifications detailed in Section R322 of the International Residential Code as incorporated by Section 15.04.013, as amended.” WWMC Chapter 21.10 was not opened for this entry.
  • THE ROLLING CLAUSE IS NOT IN THE ADOPTING SENTENCE — IT IS ITS OWN SECTION, AND A PHRASE-BASED AUDIT WOULD MISS IT. WWMC 15.04.030: “The amendment, addition or repeal of any section of any of the adopted codes, regulations, or statutes shall be deemed to amend this chapter and the codes, regulations, and statutes contained in this chapter are adopted by reference in conformity with the amendment, addition or repeal, and it shall not be necessary for the legislative authority of this city to take any action with respect to such addition, amendment or repeal as provided by RCW 35A.12.140.” MEASURED, NOT ASSUMED: a regular expression for the usual rolling formulations (“as now or hereafter amended”, “as the same exists”, “may hereafter be amended”, “as now in effect”) returns NOTHING across all 75,567 characters of Chapter 15.04. The years are named and the state layer still rolls; the two facts just live in different sections.

Required documents

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Fee schedule

Building permit fee (valuation-based)
WWMC 15.04.050(A)(1) publishes the whole schedule in dollars. Show full citationWWMC 15.04.050(A)(1) publishes the whole schedule in dollars. Eight valuation tiers: $0.01–$500.00 is a flat $30.00; then $30.00 plus $3.61 per additional $100 to $2,000; $84.78 plus $16.95 per $1,000 to $25,000; $475.48 plus $12.26 per $1,000 to $50,000; $782.23 plus $8.49 per $1,000 to $100,000; $1,207.69 plus $6.80 per $1,000 to $500,000; $3,929.93 plus $5.77 per $1,000 to $1,000,000; and $6,816.23 plus $4.62 per $1,000 above that. >>> CONTINUITY CONTROL, RUN THIS SESSION AND REPORTED AS MEASURED RATHER THAN AS AN ERROR: 6 of the 7 tier boundaries are discontinuous, and EVERY DIFFERENCE IS POSITIVE — the next tier's published base always sits slightly above what the tier below it computes to. At $2,000 the lower tier yields $84.15 against a published $84.78 (+$0.63); at $25,000, $474.63 against $475.48 (+$0.85); at $50,000, $781.98 against $782.23 (+$0.25); at $100,000, $1,206.73 against $1,207.69 (+$0.96); at $500,000, $3,927.69 against $3,929.93 (+$2.24); at $1,000,000, $6,814.93 against $6,816.23 (+$1.30). Only the $500 boundary is exact. The check was run with a known-continuous control table that correctly reported zero. A one-directional residual is not what arithmetic slips look like, but this entry does not diagnose the cause and the city's published figures govern.
From $30.00, tiered by valuation
Plan review and state surcharge
TWO CHARGES SIT ON TOP OF EVERY PERMIT FEE AND NEITHER IS IN THE TIER TABLE. Show full citationTWO CHARGES SIT ON TOP OF EVERY PERMIT FEE AND NEITHER IS IN THE TIER TABLE. WWMC 15.04.050(A)(5): “plan review fees in the amount of sixty-five percent of the applicable permit fee, plus state surcharges which may apply, shall be due and payable upon filing of permit application.” 15.04.050(A)(6) names the surcharges: $6.50 for building permits, $2.00 “for each additional unit for a building containing more than one residential unit”, and $25.00 for commercial building permits. So the cash due at application is roughly 1.65x the table figure plus a surcharge. WALLA WALLA AND LONGVIEW USE THE SAME PERCENTAGE SHAPE AND ONLY ONE OF THEM IS COMPUTABLE: Longview publishes 65/70/30 percent over a master fee schedule it does not print, while Walla Walla publishes both the percentage AND the base table it applies to.
65% of permit fee, plus surcharge
Hourly and reinspection charges
THE PUBLISHED HOURLY RATE IS A FLOOR, NOT A PRICE. Show full citationTHE PUBLISHED HOURLY RATE IS A FLOOR, NOT A PRICE. WWMC 15.04.050(A)(7) charges $65.00 per hour for inspections outside normal business hours (two-hour minimum), reinspections, inspections for which no fee is specified, and additional plan review caused by changes (half-hour minimum) — but footnote 1 reads “Or the total hourly cost to the city of Walla Walla, whichever is greater. This cost shall include supervision, overhead, equipment, hourly wages and fringe benefits of the employees involved.” Quoting $65.00 per hour on its own would understate it. Outside consultants are billed at “Actual costs”, which footnote 2 says “include administrative and overhead costs.”
$65.00/hour or actual cost, if higher
Valuation basis
THE RATE TABLE IS PUBLISHED AND THE VALUATION FEEDING IT IS DELEGATED, WHICH IS THE EXACT INVERSE OF SEATAC. Show full citationTHE RATE TABLE IS PUBLISHED AND THE VALUATION FEEDING IT IS DELEGATED, WHICH IS THE EXACT INVERSE OF SEATAC. WWMC 15.04.005(H): “the city of Walla Walla adopts by reference the most recent building valuation data (BVD) table published by the International Code Council, as amended. Any changes in the BVD table published by the International Code Council shall be deemed to be adopted by the city of Walla Walla without additional amendment to this subsection.” SeaTac publishes the valuation method and withholds the rate; Walla Walla publishes the rate and delegates the valuation input. Both leave a reader one step short of a final number, from opposite directions.
ICC building valuation data table

Review timeline

Plan review
Not published — contact the department

How long did your Residential building permit permit actually take in Walla Walla?

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Inspection process

    Tips

    • WALLA WALLA'S AIR FREEZE INDEX IS 1000, A FIFTH READING ACROSS FIVE CITIES IN THIS SET WITH FOUR DISTINCT VALUES — Edmonds 175, Lake Stevens 175, Lynnwood 1500, SeaTac 50, Walla Walla 1000. Each is quoted from its own city's published criteria. This city sits east of the Cascades and the others do not, which is an obvious thing to reach for and is NOT offered here as an explanation. Design to the table your jurisdiction publishes.
    • THE SNOW LOAD CARRIES A NOTE THAT CHANGES WHICH NUMBER YOU USE. The table gives a 30 lbs./ft.2 ground snow load, and the asterisk reads “Minimum roof snow load to be thirty lbs./ft.2 in the city of Walla Walla” — so 30 is a floor on the ROOF load, not only a ground figure to be reduced from.
    • A THREE-TRIGGER EXPIRY, AND ANY ONE OF THEM VOIDS THE PERMIT. WWMC 15.04.005(G): “All permits shall expire by limitation and be declared void if: 1. Work is not started within one hundred eighty days of obtaining a permit, 2. Work is abandoned for one hundred eighty days or more after beginning work, or 3. After two years from the date of permit issuance, regardless of whether the work is finished.” The third is absolute — steady visible progress does not save a permit at two years. This matches the structure Puyallup and Wenatchee publish, and differs from SeaTac, which times a permit by what it builds rather than by whether work is happening.

    Frequently asked questions

    Walla Walla requires a residential building permit for: WWMC 15.04.013 adopts “The 2021 Edition of the International Residential Code, published by the International Code Council, Inc.” with named appendices, as amended by the applicable Chapter 51-51 WAC layer.; THE DESIGN CRITERIA ARE IN THE GENERAL PROVISIONS, NOT IN AN AMENDED TABLE R301.2, which is where every other city in this Washington set puts them. WWMC 15.04.005(B) publishes: ground snow load 30 lbs./ft.2 with the note “Minimum roof snow load to be thirty lbs./ft.2 in the city of Walla Walla”; “110 mph ultimate wind speed for Residential/Commercial”; seismic design category D, with no sub-category where SeaTac publishes D2; weathering Severe; frost line depth 24 inches; termites Slight to Moderate; decay None to slight; winter design temperature 10 degrees; ice shield underlayment required; flood hazard given as “2003 1992 FIRM”, two years in one cell, quoted as printed; AIR FREEZE INDEX 1000; mean annual temperature 50.2 degrees.; THE CODE PUBLISHES ITS OWN TIE-BREAKER, AND THE ORDER IS EXPLICIT. WWMC 15.04.005(A): the general provisions beat any referenced code, and “In the event of conflict between the following identified codes, the code first listed shall have priority over those latter listed: the International Building Code, the International Residential Code, the International Mechanical Code, the International Fire Code, and, then, the Uniform Plumbing Code.” Wenatchee publishes the same idea in different words; the ORDER is what matters and it is specific to each city.; A THREE-TRIGGER EXPIRY, AND ANY ONE OF THEM VOIDS THE PERMIT. WWMC 15.04.005(G): “All permits shall expire by limitation and be declared void if: 1. Work is not started within one hundred eighty days of obtaining a permit, 2. Work is abandoned for one hundred eighty days or more after beginning work, or 3. After two years from the date of permit issuance, regardless of whether the work is finished.” The third is absolute — steady visible progress does not save a permit at two years. This matches the structure Puyallup and Wenatchee publish, and differs from SeaTac, which times a permit by what it builds rather than by whether work is happening.; RE-PERMITTING AFTER EXPIRY IS CHEAPER THAN A FRESH PERMIT, AND THE CODE PICKS THE CHEAPER OF TWO MEASURES FOR YOU. WWMC 15.04.005(G): “If a permit is expired for time, a new permit shall be obtained for one-half the permit fee or based on the value of the remainder of the work to finish the original permit, whichever is less.”; AN APPROVED APPLICATION CAN STILL GO VOID BEFORE YOU HOLD A PERMIT. WWMC 15.04.005(G): “When an applicant has been notified that their permit application has been approved and is ready to purchase, the applicant shall obtain the permit within thirty days of notification or said permit application shall become void.”; WWMC 15.04.005(F): “City of Walla Walla development permits shall be issued only to the property owner or the property owner's authorized agent.”; A LICENSED WASHINGTON DESIGN PROFESSIONAL IS REQUIRED ABOVE A SIZE THRESHOLD. WWMC 15.04.005(D) requires a Washington design professional licensed under Chapter 18.08 RCW, 308-12 WAC or 18.43 RCW to prepare or oversee plans for buildings at or above the threshold the subsection sets; the full threshold text runs past the extract read for this entry and the exact cut-off is NOT ASSERTED here.; WWMC 15.04.005(C): development in a designated flood plain “shall comply with Chapter 21.10 and the construction specifications detailed in Section R322 of the International Residential Code as incorporated by Section 15.04.013, as amended.” WWMC Chapter 21.10 was not opened for this entry.; THE ROLLING CLAUSE IS NOT IN THE ADOPTING SENTENCE — IT IS ITS OWN SECTION, AND A PHRASE-BASED AUDIT WOULD MISS IT. WWMC 15.04.030: “The amendment, addition or repeal of any section of any of the adopted codes, regulations, or statutes shall be deemed to amend this chapter and the codes, regulations, and statutes contained in this chapter are adopted by reference in conformity with the amendment, addition or repeal, and it shall not be necessary for the legislative authority of this city to take any action with respect to such addition, amendment or repeal as provided by RCW 35A.12.140.” MEASURED, NOT ASSUMED: a regular expression for the usual rolling formulations (“as now or hereafter amended”, “as the same exists”, “may hereafter be amended”, “as now in effect”) returns NOTHING across all 75,567 characters of Chapter 15.04. The years are named and the state layer still rolls; the two facts just live in different sections.. If your project isn't listed, confirm with City of Walla Walla at (509) 527-4522 before starting work.

    The city publishes the whole schedule in dollars at WWMC 15.04.050(A)(1), which is unusual — most cities in this Washington set point at a separate fee resolution. It is tiered by valuation from a flat $30.00 up to $6,816.23 plus $4.62 per $1,000 above $1,000,000. Budget more than the table says: plan review adds 65 percent of the permit fee and a state surcharge applies, both due when you file, not when the permit issues. The valuation itself comes from the ICC building valuation data table.

    Walla Walla does not publish a plan-review timeline for this permit. Contact City of Walla Walla at (509) 527-4522 for current turnaround.

    You'll need: Building permit application; Project valuation for fee calculation. Depending on your project, Walla Walla may also ask for: Plans prepared or overseen by a Washington design professional. See the required-documents checklist on this page for details on each.

    Apply through City of Walla Walla at 15 North 3rd Avenue, Walla Walla, WA 99362. Phone: (509) 527-4522. Official information: https://www.wallawallawa.gov/.

    Walla Walla, Washington has adopted: IBC — WWMC 15.04.010: “The 2021 Edition of the International Building Code, published by the International Code Council, Inc., including the following appendices: Appendix A, Employee Qualifications; Appendix E, Supplementary Accessibility Requirements; Appendix F, Rodentproofing; Appendix G, Flood-Resistant Construction; Appendix H, Signs; Appendix I, Patio Covers; Appendix J, Grading; as amended by Chapter 51-50 of the Washington Administrative Code, is hereby adopted by reference and further amended as follows:”; IMC — WWMC 15.04.011: “The 2021 Edition of the International Mechanical Code … except that the standards for liquified petroleum gas installations shall be the 2021 International Fuel Gas Code, and the 2020 Edition of NFPA 58 (Liquefied Petroleum Gas Code) and the 2020 Edition of ANSI Z223.1/NFPA 54 (National Fuel Gas Code), and as amended by Chapter 51-52 of the Washington Administrative Code”.; UPC — WWMC 15.04.012: “The 2021 Edition of the Uniform Plumbing Code, published by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials”, with named appendices.; IRC — WWMC 15.04.013: “The 2021 Edition of the International Residential Code, published by the International Code Council, Inc.”, with named appendices.; ADOPTED BY SECTION TITLE BUT NOT OPENED FOR THIS ENTRY, so NO EDITION YEAR IS ASSERTED for any of them: International Green Construction Code (15.04.014), Uniform Code for the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings (15.04.015), International Existing Building Code (15.04.016), International Fire Code (15.04.017), International Energy Conservation Code (15.04.018), International Fuel Gas Code (15.04.019), International Property Maintenance Code (15.04.020), International Swimming Pool and Spa Code (15.04.021) and International Wildland-Urban Interface Code (15.04.022).; NO ELECTRICAL CODE IS ADOPTED ANYWHERE IN TITLE 15. Chapter 15.08 is published as “ELECTRICAL CODE (RESERVED)” and its page carries no sections.. Local amendments apply — see the Walla Walla overview page for the full list.

    A permit is void if work does not start within 180 days, if work is abandoned for 180 days or more, or once two years have passed from issuance regardless of whether the work is finished. If it expired for time, WWMC 15.04.005(G) lets you take a new permit for one-half the permit fee or a fee based on the value of the remaining work, whichever is less.

    Sources & verification

    Verified against official sources. Last reviewed 2026-09-16.

    Codes & ordinances

    Fees, timelines, and adopted codes are researched from each jurisdiction's published records — see how we verify. Requirements change and vary by project, so always confirm the current details with the Walla Walla building department before you submit. PermitBase is an independent reference and is not affiliated with any government agency.

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