Somerville, MA Building Safety: Building Permits (2026)

Rather than listing its own permit thresholds, the city incorporates the state code wholesale. 4 of Chapter 780 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations, as from time to time amended, are incorporated and made part of this article, and any violation of any provision of the state code constitutes a violation of the city's own ordinance. That sweep covers the state code's administrative chapter, which sets out when a building permit, or a separate electrical, plumbing or gas permit, must be pulled before covered work begins.

Somerville's Inspectional Services Division, not the police department, is the enforcing agency for building code matters under the city's noncriminal disposition schedule in § 1-11(b). Because Somerville treats the incorporated 780 CMR sections as its own ordinance, a contractor or owner who starts covered work without the required state permit is committing a local code violation directly enforceable by the city, not only a state one. Section 9-131(b) adds that each day a violation continues is deemed a separate offense, so an unpermitted job left open accrues additional exposure the longer it runs.

Some narrow categories of work are carved out of the permit-first framework by separate local vote: minor driveway or impervious-surface work that does not change dimensions, pavement material or stormwater runoff can instead go through the city engineer's paving-contractor registration process rather than a building permit.