Cuyahoga County is Cleveland and a ring of older suburbs packed tight around it, and almost every one of them runs its own building department. That matters more for a driveway than people expect: in many of these cities a contractor has to be registered before any permit is issued, and some want a permit for the driveway itself. This page is about those rules, and about what the lake and the old lots do to asphalt here.
Cleveland, Lakewood, Rocky River, Bay Village, Westlake, North Olmsted, Parma, Parma Heights, Strongsville, North Royalton, Brook Park, Berea, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, University Heights, South Euclid, Lyndhurst, Euclid, Garfield Heights, Maple Heights and Solon.
These are the rules the cities publish themselves. They apply to whichever contractor does the work, and a job is only booked where that contractor is registered.
In Cuyahoga County the permit question is not only about the apron. Cleveland Heights lists a permit for any concrete or asphalt work involving replacement or asphalt resurfacing. Lakewood issues paving permits for driveways, and asks the owner to sign an acknowledgement of property lines with the application, which on narrow lots is exactly where arguments start. Parma's building department covers driveways, parking lots and private walks along with the other trades.
None of those pages mentions sealcoating. A coat of sealer and crack filling do not replace or resurface anything, but because the rules are written city by city, the city is asked when there is any doubt, and anything that is replacement or an overlay is permitted before it starts.
Lakewood grew up as one of Cleveland's streetcar suburbs after the streetcar arrived in 1893, between Lake Erie to the north and the Rocky River valley to the west. Suburbs of that age were laid out before most families had two cars, and it often shows in the driveways: single lanes between houses, garages at the back of the lot, and now and then a drive that serves two homes.
On a drive like that, where your asphalt ends and your neighbour's lawn or drive begins matters. Sealer is cut in to the edge of your drive and no further, and on a shared drive both owners agree the job before it is booked.
Near the lake the county sits on the flat Erie plain. On the east side the ground climbs the Portage Escarpment, in steps you can see from around East 110th Street looking down Woodland Avenue, and the Heights suburbs sit on the higher ground above it. The lake-effect snow belt runs southeast of the lake from Cleveland toward Buffalo, which puts its western end on the county's east side.
For a drive the difference is the snow load and how long it sits: more shovelling and plowing, bigger banks along the edges, and a longer wet spring. East side drives are worth sealing in the first half of the season so the coat has the longest possible run before winter.
Shaker Heights requires snow plow operators to get a permit from the Police Department before plowing, at $25 per vehicle, and keeps a public list of registered operators. Its rule on where the snow goes is plain: plows may not deposit snow on the street or the sidewalk. So on a Shaker drive the snow ends up on the property, usually along the edges of the drive, and those edges are where the asphalt gets checked first.
The city lists a permit for replacement and asphalt resurfacing. Sealing is neither, but the city is asked if there is any doubt.
Yes, once both owners have agreed. Most neighbours split one job.
In cities like Lakewood and Parma the work cannot legally start until it is, and Parma charges more for anyone caught working first.
Yes, from Euclid through the Heights to Solon.
Next door: Lake County to the east and Lorain County to the west. The work: paving, repair and HOAs and property managers.
