Every permit type in Chicago
7 kinds of permit appear on the 3,095 Chicago permits we hold, as of 2026-09-09. 7 of them have enough measurable permits to say how long the city takes. Open a type to see the permits themselves.
| Permit type | Permits held | Share of what we hold | Typical | 9 in 10 within | Measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PERMIT – EXPRESS PERMIT PROGRAM | 2,032 | 65.7% | 3 days | 25 days | 2,004 |
| PERMIT - RENOVATION/ALTERATION | 516 | 16.7% | 58 days | 186 days | 514 |
| PERMIT - SIGNS | 192 | 6.2% | 49 days | 162 days | 192 |
| PERMIT - NEW CONSTRUCTION | 187 | 6.0% | 48 days | 193 days | 187 |
| PERMIT - ELEVATOR EQUIPMENT | 85 | 2.7% | same day | 7 days | 85 |
| PERMIT - REINSTATE REVOKED PMT | 43 | 1.4% | same day | same day | 43 |
| PERMIT - WRECKING/DEMOLITION | 40 | 1.3% | 62 days | 105 days | 40 |
“Permits held” counts what PermitWatch holds for Chicago — the most recently issued permits, not the city’s whole history — so it describes this corpus and not the city’s output.
What these names mean
Permit types are the city’s own classification, printed here exactly as Chicago publishes them — including its prefixes and its spelling. Two cities describing the same job will use different words for it, which is why this page is per city.
Preview: 9,183 permits loaded from Chicago, Austin and Seattle. More cities are being added.