Nebraska
Omaha, NE permit fees and requirements
Omaha prices a building permit from valuation using Table 43-91 of the Omaha Municipal Code:
$41.00 up to $2,000, then $41.00 plus $9.53 for each additional $1,000, easing to $1.96 per $1,000 above $1,000,000. Plan review is a separate 25% of the permit fee, and the Planning Department's Technology and Training fee is added on top of every fee it collects.
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 Omaha permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Omaha building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-25 |
| Omaha electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-25 |
| Omaha plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-25 |
Local context
What is specific to Omaha
Three things decide an Omaha permit fee, and the first is that the table chains cleanly — which is worth saying out loud, because the two states next door to it in this dataset do not.
Table 43-91 is written the same way Houston's and Denver's are: an amount "for the first $N, plus $Y for each additional $1,000 or fraction thereof". The difference is what happens at the seam. Omaha's six handovers each close to the cent — the band below produces, at its own top, exactly the figure the band above opens with — so a reader can check any bracket against the one before it and find it correct. Denver's does not (one seam is a dollar short), and Houston's Base Charges drift apart by design. That is not to say Omaha's arithmetic is better; it is to say it is checkable, and checking it is the point.
The second is that "or fraction thereof" is charged in Omaha too. One cent past a thousand buys a whole additional thousand, at that band's rate. At $100,000 exactly the table gives $580.69; at $100,001 it gives $580.69 plus $2.78.
The third is the Technology and Training fee, and it is the reason this site's Omaha figures will look slightly higher than a bare reading of Table 43-91 suggests. Under Ordinance #39121 the Planning Department adds 8% to every fee it collects up to $624.99, then a flat $50 up to $2,499.99, then a flat $100 above that. The City's own published example is the proof that it lands on the permit fee: "a permit fee of $126.62 would be charged for a $10,000 deck", and $117.24 — Table 43-91 at $10,000 — times 1.08 is $126.62 to the cent.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
Omaha takes a construction valuation from the applicant and lets the Building Official determine it: "The determination of value or valuation for the purpose of assessing the permit fee shall be made by the building official. The value to be used in computing the building permit and plan review fees shall be the total value of all construction work for which the permit is issued."
The valuation is the total value of all construction work — not the contract price of one trade and not a land value. Omaha publishes no square-foot cost table for deriving it, and this site never substitutes one: where a figure is needed, you supply it, and you supply it as 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 the City of Omaha's building, electrical and plumbing permit fees as published in the Omaha Municipal Code, plus the Planning Department's Technology and Training fee. They are not a total project cost. They exclude:
- The quadruple penalty fee for construction begun before the permit is issued, which multiplies the regular fee by four unless the work was an emergency and a permit was applied for within 48 hours.
- Shoring, insulation and every other flat row of Table 43-91 beyond the seven valuation bands: shoring at $41.00 plus $4.12 per $1,000 over $10,000, commercial/industrial insulation at $51.50, residential insulation at $25.75, and residential additions at $10.30.
- The certificate-of-occupancy family — $125.00 for a first, subsequent or temporary certificate, $950.00 for pre-occupancy without one, $50.00 per inspector per reinspection — and the $170.00 building analysis fee.
- Every hourly and event fee: inspections outside normal business hours at $55.00 per hour with a two-hour minimum, additional plan-review submittals at $50.00 each, and the $50.00 second re-inspection trip.
- The electrical and plumbing rows not modelled: Sec. 44-130's pre-connect, re-connect, low-voltage, outage and multiple-pre-connect items, and Table 49-304's water services, sewer connections, swimming pools, solar collectors, interceptors, water-conditioning devices and lawn sprinklers.
- Planning Department fees that are not permit fees — rezoning, platting and the planning application schedule — even though the same Technology and Training fee is added to them.
- Anything charged by another authority. Omaha is a city inside Douglas County; Douglas County and the neighbouring cities of Bennington, Elkhorn and Ralston 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.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
The page publishes the Technology and Training Fee Schedule (Ordinance #39121, effective 11/14/2011) and states it is added to "all fees paid to the Planning Department": 8% up to $624.99, $50.00 from $625.00 to $2,499.99, $100.00 above that. It is the only place the surcharge's three bands are published.
- Municipal codeCityPrimary source
Omaha Municipal Code — Chapter 43 (Building), Sec. 43-91 Permit fees and Table 43-91
Read 2026-09-25 through the Municode Library, whose code version is dated August 31, 2026 (current). Sec. 43-91 sets the building permit fee in Table 43-91 and Sec. 43-92 sets plan review at 25 percent of that fee. The section's own citation block shows the base ordinance (Ord. No. 33582, 1995); Table 43-91 was amended in 2025 by Ord. No. 44525, published by the City Clerk as a scanned PDF with no text layer.
- Municipal codeCityPrimary source
Omaha Municipal Code — Chapter 44 (Electricity), Sec. 44-130 Fee schedule
Read 2026-09-25. Sec. 44-130 prices electrical work as a list of items — a minimum of $25.00, six cents per square foot for new residential, $2.00 per branch circuit or feeder, service fees by amperage, and flat rows for temporary poles, pre-connects and low voltage.
- Municipal codeCityPrimary source
Omaha Municipal Code — Chapter 49 (Plumbing), Sec. 49-304 Permit fees and Table 49-304
Read 2026-09-25. Sec. 49-304 sets a minimum permit fee of $22.70 and then prices each item on Table 49-304: fixtures, water heaters, backflow assemblies, water and sewer services, swimming pools, solar collectors, interceptors and more.