Kirkwood, MO Building Safety: Electrical Permits (2026)

Kirkwood Code of Ordinances § 5-3a adopts the St. Louis County Electrical Code, as amended through County Ordinance No. 27,430 (approved June 18, 2019), as the city's Commercial Electrical Code for all buildings and structures except detached one- and two-family uses. Section 5-3b separately adopts the 2015 International Residential Code's electrical provisions as the city's Residential Electrical Code for detached one- and two-family dwellings, and states plainly that commercial and multi-family work is enforced by the St. Louis County Electrical Department rather than city staff.

A homeowner rewiring a single-family house pulls a city electrical permit under the residential code; a contractor wiring a duplex, apartment building or storefront works instead under the county's electrical code and county inspection. Fees for either track run through the Chapter 5, Article VIII fee schedule: § 5-223 charges a permit processing fee for every electrical permit plus general inspection fees the Council sets by resolution, calculated either by the cost-of-construction method under § 5-103 or by the adopted unit-price schedule covering items such as service equipment size, motors, panel boards and residential rewires.

Because § 5-1 puts overall Building Code administration under the Building Commissioner, that office issues the residential electrical permits even though the underlying technical standard is the 2015 IRC rather than the newer 2021 codes Kirkwood uses for building, mechanical and plumbing work.