How to look up building permits in Arkansas
Where each city publishes its permits, what the records include, and how to ask for the list.
Where each city publishes its permits
Every city and county in Arkansas keeps its own permit records, and each releases them in its own way: some post reports on their website, some email a monthly list to anyone who asks, and some only respond to a records request. Here is how the cities we track handle it.
| City | How often | How permits are released |
|---|---|---|
| Little Rock | Weekly | The Department of Planning and Development issues a weekly Building Report and also publishes a full permit export (2019 to date) on the city's open-data page, with permit number, issue date, address, work class, declared value, square footage and contractor. |
| North Little Rock | Monthly | The Planning Department posts monthly building permit data as .xlsx and .csv files on nlr.ar.gov, updated the first week of each month. |
| Conway | Monthly | Permits and Inspections keeps a year-to-date permit spreadsheet that goes out monthly, and the city's EnerGov Citizen Self Service portal lets anyone search issued permits by date. |
| Benton | Monthly | Community Development sends a monthly permit report early each month, as PDF or spreadsheet. |
| Bryant | Monthly | The Building Department produces an end-of-month report of new residential permits, released in the first week of the following month. |
| Cabot | Monthly | Public Works releases an end-of-month permit spreadsheet on the first business day of each month. |
| Sherwood | Monthly | The permits office sends a monthly PDF permit report on the first business day of each month. |
| Fayetteville | Monthly | Development Services posts monthly permit reports on the city website, and the city's GIS permit layer is updated nightly. Contractor names have occasionally been missing from the reports since a 2026 site change; we look those up separately. |
| Springdale | Monthly | The Building Department issues a monthly building permit report (from its MyGov system) early each month. |
| Rogers | Weekly | The Building Division posts a weekly permit report on rogersar.gov; the report dates are shown at the top of each file. |
| Bentonville | Twice a month | The city posts its permit list twice a month; each permit shows the address and type with the contractor on the line beneath. |
| Bella Vista | Monthly | The city posts two monthly files: a Housing Permits file with new-home detail, and an All Permits file that covers everything else (without value or square footage). Uploads sometimes arrive late in the month. |
| Siloam Springs | Monthly | The city posts a monthly permit report on its website. |
| Centerton | Monthly | The Building Department sends a monthly permit CSV on the first business day of each month, one of the cleanest formats in the state. |
| Benton County | Monthly | Benton County Building Safety releases a monthly permit spreadsheet for the unincorporated county on the first business day, and its iWorQ portal lets anyone search permits by date. |
| Fort Smith | Weekly | The Building Safety Division's CityView system sends a weekly permit detail report every Monday morning. |
| Van Buren | Monthly | The Building Department issues a month-end permit report. |
| Russellville | Monthly | The Fire, Building and Safety Division runs permits through an EnerGov Citizen Self Service portal, where issued permits can be searched by date. |
What a permit record includes
Details vary by city, but most records show the permit number and issue date, the project address, the type of work (new single-family home, addition, remodel, commercial), the declared construction value, square footage, and the contractor or builder named on the application. Some cities add the subdivision and lot; a few only release a scanned or handwritten list.
Asking a city for its permit list
Many Arkansas cities keep an email list for their monthly or weekly permit report and will add you if you ask the permit office. Where that isn't offered, records can be requested under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Two things to know: the Act grants the right to request records to citizens of Arkansas, including businesses operating in the state, and a custodian must make records that aren't immediately available ready within three working days. Cities can ask for prepayment when copying costs pass $25. A polite phone call to the permit desk usually works better than a formal letter.
Or let us do it
We collect the reports from every city on this list each week, clean them into one sheet, add builder contact details where they're public, and send it every Monday. Plans start at $39 a month, and a free sample of last month's permits is one form away.
Skip the lookups. Get the list.
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