Missouri Building Permits
Building permits in Missouri are issued by cities and counties, not the state, so the rules depend on where your home is. These are the Missouri city we cover: Kansas City.
Missouri Permit Activity at a Glance
Across the city below, we counted 2,914 issued permits for the home projects we track between October 30, 2025 and October 30, 2026. The counts come straight from each city's open permit data and are refreshed monthly. The busiest category was HVAC work in Kansas City, with 2,600 permits. Where the data includes an application date, the fastest median time from application to issue was 2 days (HVAC in Kansas City) and the slowest was 10 days (deck in Kansas City).
Kansas City Building Permits
2 project guides · 2,914 permits in 12 months · Kansas City, MO City Planning & Development Department
In Kansas City, residential permits are issued by the Kansas City, MO City Planning & Development Department. Our counts use the city's KCMO Permits (CPD) dataset. Short answers for each project we cover:
- AC or furnace replacement: Yes. Kansas City requires a permit for most heating and ventilating work, including replacing a furnace. Replacing a part of an appliance that doesn't alter its original approval is exempt. Owner-occupants of single-family homes can pull the permit and do the work themselves; otherwise a licensed contractor is required.
- New deck or porch: Sometimes. Platforms and decks no higher than 30 inches above grade at any point, and not over a basement or story below, don't need a building permit in Kansas City. Higher decks do, and all work must still meet the zoning and building codes.
| Project Guide | Permit Needed? | Permits in 12 Months | Median Days to Issue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas City HVAC Permits | Yes | 2,600 | 2 |
| Kansas City Deck Permits | Sometimes | 314 | 10 |
Not yet covered for Kansas City: roof replacement, solar panel installation and new fence. We only publish a project guide when the city's open data identifies that work clearly enough to count at least 10 permits in 12 months and we have checked the rule against an official city source. Until then, ask the Kansas City, MO City Planning & Development Department directly before starting one of these projects.
How to Use These Missouri Guides
Start with the city that issues permits for your address. If you live outside city limits, your county or township usually handles permits instead, and its rules can differ from the city pages here. Each project guide quotes the official rule, lists any fee the city publishes, and links to the source so you can confirm it before you start work. Permit counts show how often each kind of job is permitted locally, and median days to issue show how long a typical application took over the last 12 months. Rules and fees change, so treat the official source as final and call the permit office if your project is unusual.
Data last refreshed October 30, 2026.