Building, zoning, erosion and septic answers under one county roof
Outside the Town of Pulaski, the county's Building Office issues building permits from 143 Third Street NW, Suite 1, Pulaski, 540-980-7710. Its page, read in September 2026, says permits issue Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, that applications can also go through the county's online permitting system, and that the county adopted the 2021 Virginia Construction Code and Virginia Residential Code as of January 18, 2024.
Planning and Zoning, which administers the Unified Development Ordinance, and the Engineering department, which says it administers the erosion and sediment control and floodplain ordinances, share that address and phone number, and the planning page says its staff work in tandem with the other two. VDH's Pulaski County Environmental Health office, which evaluates sites for septic systems and wells, is in the basement level of the same county administration building, Suite 4, at (540) 440-2166.
That puts the zoning, erosion, septic and building questions for a county lot under one roof, and each of them can move where a slab sits or when it can be poured.
What Pulaski County wants settled before a building permit issues
Zoning comes first on a county lot. The county's ordinance requires a zoning permit for listed work that includes a new single-family home or duplex, an accessory structure on a residential property and a dock on the New River or Claytor Lake, and the county's accessory structure guide says zoning permits are required "Regardless of building permit requirements". The county's zoning application for a new structure asks whether the lot has an existing VDOT entrance to a state route or needs a new one, and it wants a site plan showing the distance in feet to every property line and to the road right of way line.
The residential building permit application asks whether the property sits in the 100 year floodplain, and a yes means a floodplain application with engineering for the foundation. Where a well or septic system is involved, the county wants the VDH permit with the application. Erosion control is part of the same gate: the county's erosion ordinance bars an agency from issuing a building or grading permit for land-disturbing work unless the applicant "submits with his application an approved erosion and sediment control plan and certification that the plan will be followed."
The fee schedule the county's building page links was adopted September 22, 2008. It lists square-foot rates for new construction, trade fees, a miscellaneous permit, a re-inspection fee and zoning items, and it names patios among what a miscellaneous permit includes. A fee line is a price list, not a ruling on a given patio, and 2008 amounts are the office's to confirm. Which work Virginia's own code lifts out of a permit is set out in the Virginia concrete permits guide, and other counties' desks are gathered on the concrete permits overview.
Pulaski County's erosion rules sit in Article 7 of its development ordinance
The county's erosion and sediment control rules are Article 7 of the same Unified Development Ordinance, titled the Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance of the County of Pulaski. Its definition of land-disturbing activity takes in clearing, grading, excavating, transporting and filling of land, and among the activities it lists as not counting are "Disturbed land areas of less than 10,000 square feet in size". The county engineer approves plans, and where the land disturbance comes from building a single-family residence, an agreement in lieu of a plan may stand in for a plan if the county engineer executes it.
The ordinance puts that paperwork on the owner. Where a contractor does the land-disturbing work under a construction contract, the plan "shall be the responsibility of the owner", the owner may not authorize the contractor's land disturbance until a permit is issued, and "The owner shall obtain the land-disturbing permit." Inside the Town of Pulaski, the town's engineering office issues its own permit, covered below.
Ten thousand square feet is a patch 100 feet on a side, and grading for a driveway or a building pad counts as disturbed land, so measure everything opened up, not the concrete alone. We place the locate request for the digging we do. Who else owes a ticket, and when, is spelled out under the 811 locate rules.
Inside the Town of Pulaski, the building permit carries the zoning certification
The Town of Pulaski runs its own Building Department at 42 1st Street NW, 540-994-8615, open 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. The town page says it "oversees the issuance of permits related to construction, demolition, renovation, and other related permits within the Town" and coordinates inspections by the Town Building Official, and one official there holds both the certified building official and the zoning administrator titles.
Zoning comes first there too. The town's permit guide makes a site plan showing setbacks the first step for new construction, additions or renovations that change a structure's use, size or footprint, "for zoning approval before a Building Permit can be issued." The town's zoning ordinance, adopted March 4, 2003 and updated through April 11, 2025, builds the certification of zoning compliance into the building permit application. Its site plan shows existing and proposed driveways and parking areas, and the permit is signed once the work also conforms with requirements such as a highway entrance permit, health department approval of a septic system, the floodplain ordinance and the erosion and sediment control plan.
The guide answers the slab question in the town's own words. Under Permits Not Required it lists "Concrete (patio) slabs on grade that are not designed to support a future building addition", while saying such work "must be performed in a manner meeting all VUSBC code requirements". Some items on that list carry an asterisk the page does not explain, so confirm with the town before relying on it. A retaining wall "supporting more than three feet of unbalanced fill" always needs a town permit. That list is the town's, so a patio outside the town limits goes to the county desk.
Land disturbance and streets are the town's as well. Its engineering page requires "a land disturbance permit to disturb more than 10,000 square feet of land", with an engineered plan and a construction entrance before clearing, and its Public Works page puts storm drainage and street maintenance with the town's own Street Department, which takes pavement and sidewalk calls at (540) 994-8651. The town's building page also links its own Building Permit Rates & Fees schedule, and the amounts are the building office's to quote.
Dublin since May 1, 2025: county permits and inspections, town zoning
Dublin works differently. Dublin's building permits page states "Pulaski County will be issuing Town of Dublin Building Permits and Inspections as of May 1, 2025" and links the Pulaski County Building Department, so a building permit for a Dublin address goes through the county's Third Street office.
Zoning stays with the town: Dublin's zoning office says it works with property owners "to ensure compliance with the Town Zoning Ordinance", and the county's planning page says both incorporated towns administer their own land use ordinances. The town office is at 101 Dublin Park Road.
We found no statement on the Town of Dublin's site, or in the county's erosion ordinance, naming who administers erosion and sediment control inside Dublin, so ask the county's erosion and sediment control program administrator at 540-980-7710 and the town before any grading starts.
For streets, Dublin appears on VDOT's Urban Program page as a qualifying town, the program through which the state makes maintenance payments to towns for streets meeting set criteria, and the town lists a streets supervisor at 540-674-4731. Ask the town who keeps the street a new drive will meet before the apron is planned. The work itself in and around town has its own page, concrete work in Dublin.
State roads in the county answer to VDOT's Christiansburg Residency
Out in the county, a driveway entrance onto a state-maintained road is VDOT's permit. VDOT lists Pulaski County under its Christiansburg Residency, 105 Cambria St., Christiansburg, 540-381-7201, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and the same page says many towns maintain their own roads, as cities do. The staking, the application and the field review are laid out in the guide to VDOT's private entrance permit, and the county's zoning application for a new structure already asks which kind of entrance the lot has.
Below the 1,850-foot contour, Claytor Lake adds Appalachian Power's desk
Claytor Lake adds a desk of its own. The lake is part of the Claytor Project, which Appalachian Power operates under a federal license, and its shoreline FAQ says that with few exceptions it owns the land below the 1,850-foot contour, while flowage and easement deeds elsewhere "give Appalachian legal rights to regulate what is built below the 1850 foot elevation contour." Normal pond is 1,846 feet. The county's Claytor Lake Overlay follows the same project boundary and says any development or use of property inside it "shall require approval from APCO."
Appalachian's shoreline plan, dated November 14, 2022, says an applicant must apply to Appalachian "and receive permission prior to beginning the proposed activity" inside the boundary, and that its permission depends on the county, state and federal permits. Its 2026 dock application wants the deeded owner, "not an agent or contractor", to sign, along with a current survey by a licensed surveyor who marks the project boundary on the site.
For concrete, Appalachian is specific. Between the project boundary and normal pond it limits structures to a single access to the dock, no more than 6 feet wide there, plus pilings or cables that steady a floating dock, and its FAQ bars impermeable materials such as asphalt or concrete from access paths. The plan's list of prohibited uses inside the boundary says "No other structures other than docks or piers are allowed", and both the plan and the county overlay restrict retaining walls there, as the questions below spell out. Excavation between normal pond and the boundary is limited to what an approved structure needs, and the plan adds that a county erosion and sediment control permit may be required.
For a crew, that makes the surveyed boundary the line to find before a form goes near the water: a slab, walk or wall planned close to the shore needs that line staked before it is priced, and anything that would cross it starts with Appalachian's shoreline office at (540) 489-2556. What a sloping lake lot asks of the slab itself, above the line, belongs to the Pulaski concrete work page.
Twenty-four inches on the county design sheet, and a slab inspection before the pour
Two county documents bear on the pour itself. The county's local design criteria sheet, linked from its building page, prints a frost depth of 24 inches in both its residential and its commercial tables; how that figure fits the state code is explained in the region's frost depth figures. For a garage, carport or shed big enough to need a building permit, the county's accessory structure guide lists a footing inspection, a foundation inspection and a "Slab inspection (prior to pour)", and it wants a garage floor of an approved noncombustible material. The guide still cites the 2015 edition of the state code, so confirm the current list with the Building Office, and set the pour date behind the slab inspection, not ahead of it.