City of Fairfax, VA
Home MenuPermit Review Metrics
Review below data-driven metrics about how long reviews are taking on average for different popular record types including:
- Residential Alterations
- Residential Additions
- Residential New Builds
- Commercial Alterations
- Commercial Additions
- Commercial New Builds
- Commercial Tenant Build-Outs
- Major Site Plans
- Minor Site Plans
Current reports below were generated on July 8, 2025.
Residential Alterations
- Number of submissions prior to approval: 1.67
- Number of incomplete submissions: 1.53
- Total number of permits issued in the last 180 days: 107
Residential Additions
- Number of submissions prior to approval: 2.27
- Number of incomplete submissions: 2.21
- Total number of permits issued in the last 180 days: 26
Residential New Builds*
*Disclaimer: Construction of new houses requires submission and approval of a house grading plan. This is an engineering-level review coordinated by zoning staff and requiring review by multiple city departments, often over the course of several months. In many cases, the building permit and house grading plan applications are submitted concurrently, but the building permit cannot be issued until the house grading plan is approved. Because of this, the building permit submission may sit with staff for prolonged periods of time, which you will see reflected in the abnormally long figure for “total time with staff” in the graph above. This is not reflective of the actual time it takes building code staff to review the building plans.
- Number of submissions prior to approval: 4
- Number of incomplete submissions: 3
- Total number of permits issued in the last 180 days: 8
Commercial Alterations
- Number of submissions prior to approval: 2.08
- Number of incomplete submissions: 1.82
- Total number of permits issued in the last 180 days: 60
Commercial Additions
- Number of submissions prior to approval: 2.5
- Number of incomplete submissions: 2
- Total number of permits issued in the last 180 days: 2
Commercial New Builds*
*Disclaimer: Construction of new commercial buildings requires submission and approval of a site plan. This is an engineering- level review coordinated by zoning staff and requiring review by multiple city departments, often over the course of several months. In some cases, the building permit and site plan applications are submitted concurrently, but the building permit cannot be issued until the site plan is approved. Because of this, the building permit submission may sit with staff for prolonged periods of time, which you will see reflected in the abnormally long figure for “total time with staff” in the graph above. This is not reflective of the actual time it takes building code staff to review the building plans.
- Number of submissions prior to approval: 2
- Number of incomplete submissions: 1
- Total number of permits issued in the last 180 days: 7
Commercial Tenant Build-Outs
- Number of submissions prior to approval: 2.82
- Number of incomplete submissions: 2.6
- Total number of permits issued in the last 180 days: 17
Major Site Plans
- Number of submissions prior to approval: 3
- Total number of permits issued in the last 180 days: 7
Minor Site Plans
- Number of submissions prior to approval: 1.5
- Total number of permits issued in the last 180 days: 2