Hillsboro, OR Building Safety: Electrical Permits (2026)

010(D) adopts, as Hillsboro's governing electrical rules, 'the Oregon Electrical Specialty Code, as adopted by OAR 918-305-0100 (2014),' making the state code, not a locally written electrical chapter, the substantive standard the City's inspectors enforce for wiring, panels, and fixture work citywide. 010 alongside the City's parallel adoptions of the Structural, Mechanical, Plumbing, Residential, Manufactured Dwelling and Energy Efficiency specialty codes, all administered by the same building permit process. 020(A) sets a hard clock: if inspection approval has not occurred within 6 months, the permit is void and no further work may occur at the premises until a new permit is obtained.

Subsection B allows one automatic 6-month extension whenever an inspection approval occurs, running until final approval or occupancy if that comes sooner, and lets the Manager grant a second 6-month extension on written finding that the permittee could not proceed for reasons beyond their control, provided the extension request arrives before expiration and an inspection occurs during that extension window. A permit that has lapsed for 6 months or less can be renewed once under subsection C, but only if the original plans and specifications are unchanged, an inspection approval has occurred since expiration, and the applicant pays a renewal fee equal to 50% of the initial permit fee; a permit expired more than 6 months cannot be renewed at all and must be reapplied for from scratch.

030 gives the Council authority to set permit fees by resolution and lets the Manager adjust fee tables to match state-mandated valuation changes, with 15 days' public notice required for other fee changes. 160, from permit fees under all applicable specialty codes, including electrical, though the underlying permit and inspection requirement still applies, and the fee exemption does not extend to modifications of existing installations that don't involve new alternative-energy equipment.