Here's a thing that surprises Lake County homeowners partway into a project: they got a permit, and it turns out they needed two.
It's not a bureaucratic quirk. It's how building departments are organized in this part of Ohio, and once you see the structure it makes sense.
Two different questions
A zoning permit answers: are you allowed to put that there?
Setbacks from the property line. Lot coverage. Height. Whether an accessory structure is permitted in your district. Zoning doesn't care whether your deck is built well — it cares where it sits on the lot.
A building permit answers: is it built to code?
Footings, framing, spans, electrical, plumbing, the inspections along the way. Building doesn't care about your setback — it cares whether the thing stands up and is safe.
Different questions, different offices, and in much of Lake County, two different governments.
Who issues what
The Lake County Building Department (440-350-2636) issues building permits and does inspections for around twenty communities — including Concord Township, Perry, Madison Village and Township, Painesville City and Township, Willowick, Wickliffe, Kirtland, Mentor-on-the-Lake, Fairport Harbor, Willoughby Hills and others.
Three cities run their own building departments and handle everything in-house: Mentor, Willoughby, and Eastlake. If you're in one of those three, it's one office and one process.
Everywhere else, the split applies: your city or township issues the zoning permit, and the county issues the building permit.
The county says it plainly — registering or permitting with the county does not replace your local municipal requirements.
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The order matters
This is the part that costs people time.
In several communities the zoning permit has to come first, because the county wants to see that the project is permitted to exist where you're putting it before it reviews how it's built. Apply to the county first and you can end up waiting, or resubmitting.
For a deck or an addition — anything that occupies space on the lot — assume zoning first, then building.
For work entirely inside the house, like a kitchen or bath remodel, zoning usually isn't involved at all. Nothing about the footprint changes. You're just dealing with the building side.
A worked example
Say you're in Willowick and you want a deck off the back of the house.
- Willowick issues the zoning permit — checking your setbacks and lot coverage.
- Lake County issues the building permit and does the footing, framing and final inspections.
- Separately, both Willowick and Lake County require the contractor to be registered — the city is explicit that city registration is required even if the contractor is already registered with the county.
Three separate requirements for one deck. None of them individually difficult. All of them easy to be halfway through before you find out.
Townships work a little differently
If you're in Concord, Perry, or Madison Township, there's no township contractor registration and no township building department. The township issues a zoning permit per project, and Lake County handles building permits and inspections.
Concord's zoning office says it directly: contractor registration goes through the Lake County Building Department.
How Ashtabula and Geauga compare
Ashtabula County works like the Lake County split. Ashtabula, Conneaut, Geneva and Jefferson issue zoning permits; the Ashtabula County Building Department in Jefferson (440-576-3737) issues the building permit. The City of Ashtabula states it outright — they don't issue building permits, you take their zoning permit to the county.
Geauga County is the simplest of the three. The county building department covers the townships plus Chardon, Burton, Middlefield and Aquilla, with South Russell running its own department. Fewer moving parts. We wrote up the Geauga deck rules here.
Why this matters when you're hiring
A contractor who works across Lake County knows which office handles your address without looking it up, and knows they need to be registered in both places. One who doesn't will either guess, or hand the permit back to you as "something the homeowner usually pulls."
That's worth listening for. A homeowner-pulled permit isn't illegal, but it does shift responsibility for the inspection — and the code compliance — onto you.
You can verify registration yourself before you sign anything. Here's how to check.
The short version
- In Mentor, Willoughby or Eastlake, one office does it all.
- Everywhere else in Lake County, expect city or township zoning first, county building second.
- Inside-the-house remodels usually skip zoning entirely.
- Anything on the lot — decks, additions, sheds, pools — needs both.
We handle both applications and schedule the inspections as part of the job, across Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties.
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Requirements vary by community and change over time. Confirm your specific address with your city or township zoning office and the Lake County Building Department at 440-350-2636. Last reviewed September 2026.