LaPorte County, IN Parking Rules: Driveway Rules (2026)

LaPorte County treats a driveway as regulated construction, not an informal cut into county right-of-way. Section 37.81 requires a $25 fee, payable to the Building Commissioner, collected at the time of filing an application for a driveway permit, and that fee sits alongside the identical $25 driveway line item in the § 151.27(U) building permit fee schedule, confirming the driveway permit runs through the same Building Department process used for other construction work. Section 150.05 defines a DRIVEWAY as a private access road serving only one residential dwelling or commercial building, and separately defines a DRIVEWAY ROADCUT as an entrance into or across a county road, distinguishing the private drive itself from the point where it meets the public road.

Section 151.26(B) backs the fee requirement with a blanket rule that no person, company, or corporation may perform or cause to be performed any work in the unincorporated areas of the county without obtaining a Building Department permit in advance, and § 151.26(C) triples the fee as a penalty for anyone who proceeds without one. New-construction driveways also connect to the mailbox rule at § 151.43(E): anyone who obtains a building permit for new construction must obtain a mailbox permit from the Building Commissioner as part of that same driveway permit, and mailbox placement must sit at least 90 feet from the centerline of any intersecting road under § 151.43(A)(7).