Building permits, zoning and septic rules in Clinton County, New York

Yes, in nearly every case, but you get that permit from your town or village, not from Clinton County. New York's Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code requires each "authority having jurisdiction" to require permits for covered work, and in Clinton County that authority is the town or village where the land sits⁶. The Town of Clinton, one of the county's towns, is a working example: its Building/Code Enforcement office requires a permit for construction, enlargement, alteration or demolition^1,7. A town may exempt small, low-risk work, such as a one-story detached tool or storage shed of 144 square feet or less beside a one- or two-family home, but it does not have to, and exempt work must still meet the Uniform Code⁸. Ask your town whether it grants that shed exemption. Since December 31, 2025, permit applications must comply with the 2025 Uniform Code⁹. Permitted construction is inspected at specified stages, and the permit holder must leave the work accessible and exposed until the municipality inspects and accepts it¹⁰.

Because New York gives permitting power to towns and villages, Clinton County itself does not run a building department¹. The Town of Clinton's Building/Code Enforcement office is one working example: it administers and enforces the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code for land in that town⁷. Reach the Town of Clinton at (518) 497-6133, at 23 Smith Street in Churubusco⁷. If your land is in a different one of Clinton County's towns, contact that town's own building or code enforcement office instead; the office, phone number and fee schedule all vary by town, so treat this contact as an example, not a countywide number¹.

Not at the county level: Clinton County does not run a countywide zoning ordinance, because New York gives zoning authority to towns and villages rather than counties¹. "No county zoning" is not the same as "no zoning" here: the town where your parcel sits sets its own zoning district map, setbacks, minimum lot sizes and land-use rules, and a village inside that town can add another layer on top¹. New York's Town Law also lets a town board authorize its planning board to approve subdivisions outside any village, subject to statutory hearing and decision deadlines, so dividing a larger tract is also handled town by town¹¹. The Clinton County Planning Board reviews certain referred municipal zoning actions near municipal boundaries, parks, county or state roads and similar features, but it does not decide zoning¹². Before you buy, ask your specific town's code enforcement or planning office what zoning district your parcel is in and what it allows there.

The Clinton County Health Department handles individual sewage treatment systems countywide². For an installation, replacement or re-engineered system, arrange an application review appointment and obtain the county's approved construction permit before work begins; the system must comply with the county sanitary code and the state sanitary code, and the process includes a Certificate of Acceptance². The Environmental Health & Safety Division can be reached at 518-565-4870, at 135 Margaret Street in Plattsburgh¹³. Statewide, a system moving less than 1,000 gallons per day of ordinary sewage does not need a separate state SPDES discharge permit, but that exemption does not remove the county construction-permit requirement^2,14. The Health Department's published plan-review fees for individual sewage treatment systems are $100 for conventional systems, $150 for alternative systems and $35 for tank replacement only, and the schedule lists minimum fees¹⁵. Septic permits for every address in Clinton County, town or village, come from this one office². Only about 0.7% of Clinton County's soils are free of severe limits for a conventional septic drain field, so plan on a site evaluation and the possibility of an engineered or alternative system¹⁶.

Clinton County's own pages do not address RV or tiny-home occupancy directly, and because zoning is a town function here, the answer depends entirely on which town your parcel is in¹. New York's Uniform Code applies statewide once a structure is used as a dwelling, so a tiny home built as a permanent residence still needs a building permit, required inspections, and a certificate of occupancy before you can legally live in it, the same as any other new home⁶. Do not assume a rural, low-density county like Clinton has no rules for RV or tiny-home living: ask your specific town's building or code enforcement office before you buy land or move one in.

1. Identify which town or village your parcel is in, since that town issues your building permit and sets your zoning, not Clinton County¹.
2. Contact that town's building or code enforcement office to confirm your parcel's zoning district and any local setback or lot-size rules; the Town of Clinton's office at (518) 497-6133 is one example⁷.
3. Get your septic construction permit from the Clinton County Health Department's Environmental Health & Safety Division before you build; only a small share of county soils are free of severe septic limits, so budget time for a site evaluation^13,16.
4. If your access is a new entrance onto a county road, apply for a permit from the Clinton County Highway Department before construction begins⁵.
5. Apply for your building permit with your town, including the tax map number, street address and construction documents the Uniform Code requires¹⁷.
6. Schedule each required inspection as work proceeds, keep the work accessible and exposed until the municipality accepts it, and get your certificate of occupancy before moving in^6,10.

Clinton County's terrain is gentle by national standards: about 88.2% of the county sits at 15% slope or less and about 72.6% is wooded, which is good for building sites but still worth walking before you commit¹⁶. Septic siting is the bigger constraint: only about 0.7% of the county's soils are free of severe limits for a conventional drain field, so budget for a site evaluation and likely an engineered system on many lots¹⁶. The county gets about 38.8 inches of precipitation a year and sees severe drought in only about 0.7% of years, and the nearest city of 100,000 or more people is roughly 143 miles from the county's center¹⁶. Property taxes run well above the national norm here: Clinton County's effective rate is about 2% with a median annual bill near $3,461, so weigh that alongside a typical home insurance premium of about $1,038 a year¹⁶. Because zoning, building permits and fees are all set town by town, get the actual rules for your specific town rather than relying on any one town's numbers, including the Town of Clinton's, as a stand-in for the whole county¹.