An older San Juan County permit may have reached final approval without a formal Certificate of Occupancy. The County’s current FAQ says that, particularly before about 2010, a finaled permit card or an inspection form showing occupancy approval may have served as the approval record. Start with the permit number, address or parcel, then ask for those specific documents instead of treating “no CO” as the end of the search.
Decide which approval document answers the question
A permit, final permit card, inspection form and Certificate of Occupancy answer different questions. The permit records authorization for the work. A finaled permit card or inspection form may record the County’s final or occupancy approval. A formal CO, when one exists, is a separate document.
For a pre-2010 project, ask the narrow question first: what retained document shows the approval that allowed occupancy? Request the named record and read its actual notation and date.
That guidance does not make every card or inspection entry equivalent to a CO. The site’s Certificate of Occupancy versus building permit guide explains why issuance and occupancy evidence should remain separate.
Confirm the address, parcel and permitting authority
This guide covers records held by San Juan County Community Development. A Friday Harbor postal address does not by itself show whether the County or the Town of Friday Harbor issued the permit. The Town has its own building-permit office, so ask the Town about a project inside Town jurisdiction rather than reading a County search miss as a missing permit.
For a County project, preserve the street address exactly as it appears on a tax or permit record. If the address is uncertain, use the County’s Parcel Search and Maps page as the stable starting route. Its linked property search accepts street number, partial street name, city, Property ID and tax-parcel fields.
Record the parcel number without replacing the address or permit number. Each identifier can resolve a different failure: an address may have changed, a parcel may have been divided, and an old permit number may use a format that the current search does not anticipate.
Use the current permit search as an index
Open the County’s SmartGov public home, choose My Portal and open the public application search. The current basic form accepts a permit or license number, address or name and requires at least two characters. The advanced form also offers application number, application type, process status, site address, city, ZIP code, parcel number, primary contact and contractor.
Start with one strong identifier:
- Search the complete permit number when it is printed on a County document.
- Search the site address when the number is unknown.
- Try the parcel number when an address search is ambiguous or the address has changed.
- Use a person or contractor only to confirm a candidate record, because names can repeat.
The advanced status list includes Finaled, Closed and other workflow labels. A displayed status is a search and routing clue, not a substitute for reading the underlying approval document. A Finaled label does not mean a Certificate of Occupancy was issued.
The County’s April 2026 instructions recommend a desktop or laptop with Chrome or Edge rather than a phone or tablet. The public search form can be opened without an account. For portal help, the County lists 360-378-2354 and dcdpermits@sanjuancountywa.gov. We reviewed the forms but did not submit a property or permit query, open a result or test a download.
Request the older file by document name
When the public index does not supply the needed approval proof, use the County’s Request Records page to enter the official Records Center route for Community Development records.
Ask for a bounded set of retained objects:
- the permit record and finaled permit card;
- inspection forms, especially the form showing final or occupancy approval;
- a Certificate of Occupancy, if one was issued;
- the application and supporting documents needed to identify the project.
Include the property address, parcel number, permit number if known, approximate work year and the systems already checked. For example, a request for “the finaled permit card and any inspection form recording occupancy approval for the pre-2010 building permit at [address]” gives staff a clearer target than a request for every property document.
The County says some Community Development documents are digitized and can be reached through Polaris. Its published Polaris instructions describe searching for a parcel, opening Links to More Information, choosing Search County Documents, and checking the Permits folder for a linked permit number. Treat that as a document-discovery route, not a promise that every old permit was scanned or linked. The site’s older permit lookup guide gives a simple way to log the repositories and identifiers tried.
Interpret an absent CO without erasing the approval trail
“No formal CO,” “no online result” and “no retained record” are different findings. A record may exist only in a retained project file, use an earlier address, or remain undigitized. The County cautions that not all project records were retained.
Write down what was actually checked and what the County returned. If a final inspection appears in the file, read its result and notes rather than relying on the inspection label alone; the final inspection status guide explains that distinction.
An absent document does not establish that no permit was issued, that occupancy was approved, that work was unlawful, or that the property is safe today. The useful conclusion is narrower: name the approval record found, preserve its date and identifier, and describe any gap that remains.
Sources checked September 20, 2026. We reviewed the County FAQ, current SmartGov search forms, records-request instructions, parcel-search route, Polaris guide, current portal notice and the Town of Friday Harbor building page. We did not submit a property, parcel, permit, person or records search; open an individual result; download a project file; create an account; or send a records request.