09/23/2026
If you're planning to knock down a building in Philly (or start digging foundations for a new one) there's a good chance you need the Health Department to sign off — and if you're starting after October 1st, you need them to sign off ASAP.
Philly's Department of Public Health houses the Air Management Services (AMS) division, and AMS regulates air pollution — which includes the dust kicked up by demolition and excavation.
For a decade, Philadelphia has required an AMS dust control permit for complete demolition of a building over three stories or 40 feet tall, or more than 10,000 square feet in floor area. It also requires this permit for any demolition by implosion, and — since 2019 — for any earth disturbance of 5,000 square feet or more.
AMS isn't terribly well-integrated with L&I's systems. L&I permits are often issued without supposedly required AMS permits, leaving AMS to enforce their regulations on their own. Sometimes projects that were supposed to get AMS approval close up without ever notifying the division.
Starting October 1st, however, L&I is providing an assist. In addition to simply requiring a dust control permit for certain demolition, as they had done, L&I will enforce the dust control rules for building and site permits as well, ensuring that the AMS permit is obtained for all digging, grubbing, or grading work of at least 5,000 SF. This means that no building, site, or demolition permit under AMS purview will be released until the approved dust control permit is provided to L&I.
This can back up paperwork considerably, since AMS doesn't offer an accelerated review option like L&I: if the dust control application goes in after the building application, that building permit will sit around, technically approved, until AMS approves the dust management plan.
The good news: it's easy to get a head start. AMS allows dust control applications a full year before the anticipated start of work, and you don't need a permit-ready set of construction documents to apply: just information about the methods of dust control to be employed on the project.
So if your demo or digging triggers the dust control requirement, make sure to build some time for AMS review into your pre-construction schedule.
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