Somerset County Commercial and Institutional Permit Activity

Snapshot assembled October 1, 2026. 5,596 source records; permit dates 2024-01-02 to 2026-08-05.
Source: New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, via NJOIT Open Data Center.
https://data.nj.gov/Reference-Data/NJ-Construction-Permit-Data/w9se-dmra
License: Public Domain, as declared in the source metadata.

Files: permit-records.csv (all source fields), monthly-summary.csv (record counts by original permit month), schema.json (source field definitions), README.txt.
Keep municipality codes, record IDs, block, lot and permit numbers as strings.
The source row key is municipality code plus record ID. Multiple rows can refer to one permit.

Limitations:
- These are permit and certificate records, not independent projects, open bids or confirmed construction starts.
- The source has no street addresses, owner names, contractor contacts or detailed descriptions of work.
- Only selected commercial, industrial, assembly, educational, institutional and storage use groups are included; R and U groups are excluded, including hotels and multifamily housing.
- Municipal reporting is incomplete and unaudited. The source says the most recent two months have not been reviewed.
- Permit dates begin in 2024. Monthly summaries group by the original permit month, including records now carrying certificate status; they are not counts of certificates issued that month.
- Update records are retained and flagged. Row counts and repeated permit references must not be treated as unique projects or summed construction spending.
- Source descriptions containing replacement characters are preserved. Source numeric values and text identifiers are retained without rounding or silent repairs.
- This is a dated snapshot of a rolling source database. Future updates are not included and coverage is not through October 2026.
