Dallas, TX Building Safety: Building Permits (2026)

Chapter XXIV of the Dallas City Charter, in Section 7 titled "Building Permits," is the constitutional source of the city's permitting power: it authorizes the city to prohibit erection, construction, or repair of "any building or structure of any kind within the city" unless a permit has first been issued. The same section lets the city council set and collect a permit fee, and it authorizes city inspectors to examine buildings and structures "during the progress of their construction" rather than only at completion. Crucially, the charter ties the permit requirement to compliance with "the building regulations which exist in the city or which shall hereafter be passed," meaning the specific technical standards a permit applicant must meet come from the currently adopted Dallas Building Code, codified at Chapter 53 of the Dallas City Code and periodically updated to track the International Building Code.

In practice, this charter section is why virtually every act of erecting, adding to, enlarging, moving, altering, repairing, converting, extending, or demolishing a building or structure in Dallas needs a permit first, whether the project touches the structural frame or the plumbing, electrical, and mechanical systems installed inside it. The charter grant is broad by design: it covers "any building or structure of any kind," not just new construction, so remodels and repairs on existing buildings fall under the same permit-first rule as ground-up construction.

Because the charter leaves enforcement mechanics to ordinance, the city council implements the permit requirement, fee schedule, and inspection process through the Building Code and related development ordinances rather than through charter amendment.