Lee County, NC Building Safety: Building Permits (2026)

Lee County does not write its own building code; Sec. 6-52 adopts by reference the current edition of the N.C. Building Code, General Construction, Administration and Enforcement and Accessibility Code exactly as the N.C. Building Code Council publishes and amends it, applying it countywide to the design, materials, methods of construction and use of materials for buildings hereafter erected, enlarged, altered, repaired or otherwise constructed or reconstructed. Section 6-58(a) restates the trigger operationally: any building or structure that is constructed, reconstructed, erected, altered, extended, enlarged, repaired, demolished or moved must conform to the General Construction code, the Residential Building Code, or both if both apply, along with the Accessibility Code.

Because the county adopts the state's administrative and enforcement provisions along with the technical standards, the state code's own permit-application, inspection and approval requirements govern construction in the county's unincorporated area the same way they would in a municipality that has adopted the same code. Section 6-58(k) also sets the tie-breaker: if any adopted code conflicts with another adopted code, this Code of Ordinances, or state law, the more stringent provision shall prevail. The county's Community Development and Inspection Department, shared with the City of Sanford, administers plan review and inspections, and Sec.

6-33 provides that the inspection fee schedule is set by the Board of Commissioners from time to time and kept on file at the county offices rather than printed in the Code itself.