Most Licking County decks need two approvals in order: a zoning certificate from your city or township, then a building permit from the Licking County Building Code Department. Frost depth here is 32 inches, and joist and beam sizing follows the current Residential Code of Ohio span tables.
Zoning comes first. Inside a city, the city's planning and zoning office issues the certificate and checks setbacks, lot coverage and easements. Outside city limits, the township zoning office does the same job, and a mailing address in a town is not proof you are inside its city limits: the address alone does not tell you which desk to use.
Building comes second. The Licking County Building Code Department issues the actual building permit, and they want the application, a copy of the zoning certificate, and two complete sets of plans and specifications. No zoning certificate means no building permit application gets accepted.
Some districts add a third step: a design review board can require a certificate of appropriateness on top of zoning, usually where it affects what shows from the street. It adds a review cycle to the calendar, so it is worth asking about early.
Licking County's frost depth is 32 inches. Footings poured above that line can heave with the ground through freeze and thaw, which is what eventually cracks decking, racks railing, and pulls stairs out of square. We pour to 42 inches as standard practice, ten inches of margin past the code minimum.
Footing diameter depends on the tributary area each post carries, not a single number for every deck. A post carrying more roof or deck load needs a wider footing than one carrying less.
Joist span limits change by member size, at the standard 16 inch on-center spacing used in most residential deck framing. These are the current Southern Pine No. 2 spans under the load assumptions the Residential Code of Ohio uses for decks:
2x6: up to 9.0 ft. 2x8: up to 11.83 ft. 2x10: up to 14.0 ft. 2x12: up to 16.5 ft.
Framing, footing and span information on this page is advisory. Final member sizes are confirmed on the stamped plan with the local building authority at permit, not from a table on a website.
Span figures and frost depth are drawn from our own code table, verified against the 2021 IRC R507.5/R507.6 span provisions for Southern Pine No. 2 at 16 inch on-center spacing, 40 psf live plus 10 psf dead load. Confirm the edition currently enforced in your jurisdiction before relying on any figure for a permitted job; code editions and local amendments change. Sources: Licking County Building Code, Ohio Administrative Code, Chapter 4101:8-5.