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Building Permit Quality Assurance Program

As the only Building Division in Oregon accredited by the International Accreditation Service (IAS), you can be confident that Salem’s building permit processes demonstrate the highest levels of service and value. The IAS accreditation means Salem has been independently evaluated for its technical competence and quality of service.

The heart of accreditation is establishing quality control standards and regular monitoring of processes against those standards.

Standards

The standards listed here are goals and not guarantees.

Permit Application Standards

  • Verification of
    • Construction Contractor Board (CCB) numbers
    • Job site information
    • Contact information
    • Signatures information
    • Fee calculations
  • Consistent construction document intake

Plan Review Standards

  • License Verification – licenses of design professionals will be verified during the review process.
  • Residential Structures – Initial comments on plan reviews will be sent within 10 business days.
  • Commercial Structures – Initial comments on plan reviews will be sent within 20 business days.

Inspection Standards

  • Next Day Inspections – Inspections will be scheduled on the next business day, whenever possible.
  • Same Day Inspections – Inspections will be scheduled on the same business day when the request is made by 5 a.m.

Quality Assurance

The purpose of the quality assurance program is to provide you assurance that:

  • The construction complies with the design in the approved construction documents.
  • Building code application has been applied consistently.

To maintain the established standards and continuously improve processes, the Building & Safety Division audits:

  • Staff work on a monthly basis
  • Procedure documentation on an annual basis
  • Compliance with established service goals on a monthly basis

Service Goal Compliance Graphs for Initial Plan Review Comments

The documents below show the turn-around time for initial plan review comments for residential and commercial structures.

Checklists

Plan reviewers and inspectors use checklists to ensure consistency in code application.

Plan Review and Documentation Checklists

Inspection Checklists