Do I need a permit for pavers, driveway, or hardscape in Chamblee?

It depends. Whether pavers, driveway, or hardscape needs a permit in Chamblee comes down to the details of your project.

Georgia sets no statewide list of work exempt from a building permit. The Georgia amendments to the International Residential Code delete Chapter 1, Scope and Administration, without substitution, and keep it in the code only as a reference and guide for local governments developing their own administrative procedures. The permit threshold for a patio, walkway or driveway is therefore set by your city or county. New or widened driveways, work in the public right-of-way, and added impervious surface commonly trigger a permit or stormwater review even where simple at-grade paving does not. Retaining walls above a set height normally require a separate engineered permit. The 4 foot figure quoted nationally comes from the model residential code, which Georgia keeps only as guidance, so confirm the height and the engineering requirement with your local building department. DeKalb County's own permitting office is the DeKalb County Planning and Sustainability, reachable on 404-371-2155 at https://dekalbcountyga.gov/departments/planning-and-sustainability/permits-plan-review-and-inspections. Its online permit portal is https://epermits.dekalbcountyga.gov/. It issues permits for the unincorporated county. If your city does not run its own building department, and many smaller Georgia municipalities do not, this is the office that will handle the job. DeKalb County sits inside the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, created by the Georgia General Assembly in 2001. Every local government in the District, cities included, has to adopt the District's model post-construction stormwater ordinance or an equivalent one at least as effective, so these rules follow you into any city in the county rather than stopping at the unincorporated line. This is the project where District stormwater rules matter most, because a patio, driveway or pool deck is exactly what adds impervious surface. A large driveway or a wide expanse of paving is the usual way a residential job gets close to the threshold. In practice the thresholds are aimed at larger development rather than ordinary homeowner work, so most single-family projects sit below them. Cobb County, for example, publishes its trigger as adding more than 5,000 square feet of impervious surface or disturbing more than an acre. Each local government sets its own figures, so check yours before assuming. Where it does apply, the current standard is to retain the first 1.0 inch of rainfall on the site to the maximum extent practicable, which usually means a detention or infiltration feature rather than just grading water to the street. Chamblee's Permit Required Checklist states that repairing or resurfacing a driveway in the same footprint with no land disturbance needs no permit, but removing and replacing a driveway or enlarging its footprint does. The city directs applicants to its LDP Pre-Screen Form to decide whether a permit is needed. Retaining walls 48 inches or taller need a permit; shorter walls do not. Under UDO Sec. 230-6, retaining walls in front or street side yards are limited to 4 feet, and walls within 10 feet of a sidewalk along a public street to 2 feet.