Virginia Beach permit wait times — a free embeddable widget
Widget version 1.1.0 · First published 2026-09-13 · Figures from applications 2023-01-01 to 2026-08-21 · Maintained by Ben Davis, ben.davis@bidbro.com · Table licensed CC BY 4.0
In short
A small table, served from bidbro.com, showing how many calendar days Virginia Beach building permits take from application to issue — the median, the slowest quarter and the slowest tenth, by permit type — computed from 60,422 City of Virginia Beach permit records. Civic leagues, HOAs, realtors and property managers can place it on a page with one line of HTML. It reads nothing from the host page and sets no cookie on the host’s domain.
What the widget shows
This is the table the widget renders, exactly. Every number is derived from Observatory Release 1 (version 1.1.0), so the widget, this page and the release cannot disagree; a nightly check fails the build if they ever do.
| Permit type | Median | Slowest quarter | Slowest tenth | Permits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building | 2 days | 10 days | 26 days | 16,963 |
| Electrical | 1 day | 3 days | 7 days | 14,830 |
| Mechanical | 1 day | 4 days | 8 days | 13,388 |
| Plumbing | 1 day | 2 days | 6 days | 9,792 |
| Gas | 1 day | 3 days | 9 days | 5,240 |
| Elevator | 8 days | 14 days | 24 days | 209 |
For context, across all 60,422 residential permits in the same window the median was 1 day and the slowest tenth took 12 days or more.
Live preview
The widget as a host page sees it. It is a document served from bidbro.com inside a frame; the host page’s stylesheet and scripts never touch it.
Install it
Two ways. Both insert the same frame; the script version also keeps the frame’s height in step with its content. Replace your-site with a short name for your site (letters, digits, dots, dashes) or leave it out — it lets BidBro count installs per host and is never shown to your readers.
One-script install (recommended)
<script async src="https://www.bidbro.com/data/tools/permit-wait-times/widget.js" data-partner="your-site"></script>
<noscript><a href="https://www.bidbro.com/tools/virginia-beach-permit-wait-times">How long Virginia Beach permits take — BidBro</a></noscript>Plain iframe (no JavaScript on your page)
<iframe src="https://www.bidbro.com/data/tools/permit-wait-times/embed.html?v=1.1.0&partner=your-site"
title="How long Virginia Beach permits take — BidBro"
width="100%" height="420" style="max-width:640px;border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>If neither can be added — a newsletter, a PDF, a locked CMS — link to this page instead; it carries the same table and is the widget’s permanent home.
What it does to your page, and what it does not
- It adds one frame and nothing else. No hidden link, no script that reads your page, no cookie on your domain. The script install reads only its own
data-partnerattribute. - The visible links inside the frame are the whole link model. A “Powered by BidBro” attribution and a link to the methodology, both marked
rel="sponsored nofollow"because the free widget is what earns the placement — they pass no search-ranking credit, by design. Nothing is conditioned on you linking to BidBro anywhere on your own page. - Measurement is BidBro’s own and stays inside the frame. The framed document counts that it loaded, whether the “How this is measured” note was opened, and which of its three links was clicked — under BidBro’s own analytics property, on BidBro’s own origin. It collects nothing about your readers beyond what any bidbro.com page would, and nothing that identifies a person.
- It updates when the release updates. The figures follow Observatory Release 1; when that release is refreshed against the city’s newer records the frame shows the new version number the same day. Your snippet never needs to change.
- You may remove it at any time, and you may cite the underlying release in your own words with or without a link — the table is CC BY 4.0 and plain-text credit satisfies the licence.
Where the numbers come from
Every figure is calendar days from the application date the city recorded to the issue date the city recorded, computed by BidBro from the City of Virginia Beach’s published Building Permits Applications records (open data portal, the city’s own permit statistics page). It measures permit review time only — not construction time and not total project time — and it makes no claim about why any figure is what it is. Addresses, permit numbers, parcels and applicants are never requested or published. The full method, the by-year and 24-month series, the city’s verbatim data disclaimer and the CSV/JSON downloads are on the release page.
Machine-readable copy of exactly what the widget shows: data.json (version 1.1.0, generated 2026-08-28).
Corrections and hosting questions
If a figure looks wrong, if the frame misbehaves on your page, or if you would like a different cut — a single trade, a different city in Hampton Roads once its release exists — email ben.davis@bidbro.com. Corrections are dated on the release page rather than made silently.
Elsewhere on BidBro
- Virginia Beach contractors — licensed contractors by trade across the city.
- Virginia home-improvement projects — live projects taking bids.
- Hampton Roads Home Project Observatory — BidBro’s published construction data and its methodology.
- All free tools.