Nebraska
Lincoln, NE permit fees and requirements
Lincoln prices a building permit from total valuation using Table 1A of its Building Code:
a flat $55.00 up to $1,000, then $55.00 plus $8.00 per additional $1,000 to $10,000, easing through two more rows to $202.00 plus $2.00 per $1,000 above $25,000. Plan review is a separate 65% of the permit fee with a $100 floor. Electrical is priced per item — a $30.00 base, $6.00 a circuit, service equipment by amperage — and a fuel-gas permit is priced by outlet at $25.00 for the first five and $1.00 each after that.
Permit costs we have worked out
Each page shows the fee components, the formula the jurisdiction uses, and a worked example you can follow by hand.
Estimate your potential Lincoln permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Lincoln building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-25 |
| Lincoln electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-25 |
| Lincoln mechanical and fuel-gas permit cost | mechanical | 2026-09-25 |
Local context
What is specific to Lincoln
Three things about Lincoln are worth reading before any number here, and one of them is an absence.
The first is that the building table is checkable. Table 1A is written the same way Omaha's and Houston's are — an amount for the first so many thousand, plus a rate for each additional $1,000 or fraction of one — and both of its handovers close exactly: the row for $1,001 to $10,000 produces precisely $127.00 at its top, which is what the next row opens with, and the row for $10,001 to $25,000 produces precisely $202.00. That matters because a reader can verify any Lincoln figure against the row before it, and because Houston's table does not behave that way.
The second is that the three trades are priced by three different mechanisms, which is why this site does not reuse one form for all of them. A building permit is a valuation table; an electrical permit is a base fee plus an item count plus a service size; and a fuel-gas permit is a flat $25.00 per job covering the first five outlets, then $1.00 for each one after that, with flat rows of $6.00 and $35.00 for a replacement and $15.00 for an alteration. Lincoln's gas table is also the one place in its code where a trade permit carries an amount instead of a reference to a schedule the City Council sets later — which is exactly why the fuel-gas page can be published and the plumbing page cannot.
The third is the absence. Lincoln's code requires a plumbing permit and does not publish what it costs. Sec. 24.12.095 amends the Uniform Plumbing Code to say the plumbing fee "shall be set by the City Council and shall be provided to the applicant by the Authority Having Jurisdiction", and the Mechanical Code's Sec. 109.2 says the same of the HVAC rows. There is nothing to transcribe for those, so this site publishes no plumbing page and prices no HVAC equipment: an amount that is not published cannot be quoted honestly. What the code does fix is what happens around a fee — work started before the permit doubles it, and an unused permit returned before it expires is refunded at most two-thirds, with the remainder capped at $25.00 and a $25.00 processing fee once a refund exceeds $75.00.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
Lincoln uses "the total value of all construction work for which the permit is issued, as well as all finish work, painting, roofing, electrical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, elevators, fire extinguishing systems, and any other permanent equipment".
The building official may determine that value "by applying the ICC valuation or other recognized method of estimating building construction project cost", and Sec. 109.2 adds that the figure used to compute the fee "is only an estimate and is not intended to be used as conclusive evidence of the actual value" of the work. This site never substitutes a square-foot rate for a valuation: where a figure is needed, you supply the total value of the work.
Who to contact
The office that issues the permit, with the details we have verified. Confirm current hours before travelling.
What these fees do not include
The list is not a disclaimer: on a new house the fees left out can outweigh the permit fee several times over. Every entry here is stated on the permit page as well.
Not included in our estimates
These figures are Lincoln's building, electrical and fuel-gas permit fees as published in the Municipal Code. They are not a total project cost. They exclude:
- The plumbing permit fee and the general mechanical (HVAC) fee, which Lincoln's code requires but does not publish — they are set by the City Council and provided by the Authority Having Jurisdiction. No page on this site quotes them, because there is no published figure to quote. The fuel-gas rows are the exception, and they are the whole of what the mechanical page prices.
- Everything else in Table 1B: demolition at $200.00 residential, $250.00 plus $0.01 per square foot commercial and $30.00 for garages; the $100.00 fire-damage and building-damage investigation fees; expedited plan review at 100% of the plan-review fee with a $300.00 minimum and a $6,000.00 maximum; a 10% extension fee; and a 100% reinstatement fee for an expired permit.
- The development-permit and flood-plain fees that follow Table 1B in the same section, including flood-plain fill at $250.00 plus $50.00 per acre and the $50.00 mobile-home and accessory-building rows.
- The doubling of any fee where work starts before a permit is issued, which the code applies unless the work was an emergency.
- The $55.00 reinspection fee when a job is not ready or does not pass, and the electrical re-inspection fee of $50.00 each.
- Registration, examination and licence fees for electrical, mechanical and plumbing contractors, which are licences rather than permits.
- Anything charged by another authority. Lincoln is a city inside Lancaster County; Lancaster County and the neighbouring cities of Waverly, Hickman and Bennet issue their own permits under their own schedules.
Official sources for this jurisdiction
The documents these figures are transcribed from. Where a source contradicts itself we keep both readings and say so on the permit page.
- Municipal codeCityPrimary source
Lincoln Municipal Code Sec. 20.06.130, Sec. 109.2 — Schedule of Permit Fees (Tables 1A and 1B)
Read 2026-09-25 from the enCodePlus-hosted municipal code. Amended by Ord. 21786 §42, September 29, 2025. Table 1A is the building permit table; Sec. 109.2.1, read on the same page, sets plan review at 65% of the permit fee with a $100 floor.
- Municipal codeCityPrimary source
Lincoln Municipal Code Sec. 23.10.520 — Permit Fees (Electrical Contractor Fee Schedule)
Read 2026-09-25. Amended by Ord. 21875 §1, June 01, 2026. A $30.00 base fee added to everything else, $6.00 per branch circuit or feeder, service equipment priced by amperage, and a $50.00 re-inspection fee.
- Municipal codeCityPrimary source
Lincoln Municipal Code Sec. 24.05.030 — Application for Permit
Read 2026-09-25. A written application to the Administrative Authority for any gas piping installation, alteration or removal, with "plans, engineering calculations, diagrams and other data ... in triplicate", waivable where "the nature of the work applied for is such that reviewing of plans is not necessary".
- Municipal codeCityPrimary source
Lincoln Municipal Code Sec. 24.05.220 — Registration Required (gas piping work)
Read 2026-09-25. Gas piping work requires registration as a master plumber under Ch. 24.12, an HVAC contractor under Ch. 25.01, or a master gas fitter under Ch. 24.05. The chapter's own examination and annual registration fees sit in Sec. 24.05.350.
- Municipal codeCityPrimary source
Lincoln Municipal Code Sec. 24.05.380 — Lincoln Gas Piping Systems Code: Permit Fee
Read 2026-09-25. The only trade-permit fee table in Titles 20 through 25: "New construction (1-5 outlets) $25.00, Each additional outlet $1.00, Replacement with another permit (heating or plumbing) $6.00, Replacement alone (with no other permit) $35.00, Gas piping alteration $15.00". Amended by Ord. 19822 §4, January 28, 2013, and unchanged since.
- Municipal codeCityPrimary source
Lincoln Municipal Code Sec. 24.12.095 — Uniform Plumbing Code Sec. 104.5 Amended; Fees
Read 2026-09-25. The section states that a plumbing permit fee shall be paid but that "the fees shall be set by the City Council and shall be provided to the applicant by the Authority Having Jurisdiction" — the amount is not published in the code. The doubling rule for work started before a permit and the two-thirds refund limit are the only figures it carries.
- Municipal codeCity
Lincoln Municipal Code Sec. 25.06.090 — Mechanical Code Sec. 109.2 Amended; Fee Schedule
Read 2026-09-25. The general mechanical fee is "approved by the City Council" and "provided by the Code Official" rather than published in the code. Cited on the mechanical page for exactly that: the fuel-gas rows are published, the HVAC rows are not.
- Municipal codeCity
Lincoln Municipal Code Sec. 25.06.090 — Mechanical Code Sec. 109.2 Amended; Fee Schedule
Read 2026-09-25. The mechanical fee is likewise "approved by the City Council" and "provided by the Code Official" rather than published in the code, which is why Lincoln has no mechanical permit page.
- Municipal codeCityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-25. "Chapter 4 of the International Fuel Gas Code is hereby deleted. Gas piping installations are governed by the Lincoln Fuel Gas Code." This is why Sec. 24.05.380 is the operative gas-piping fee table rather than a superseded one. Amended by Ord. 21816 §22, December 15, 2025.