By Kjel Jones — independent custom-home researcher for Ashton and the Henry’s Fork corridor. Not a builder and not a general contractor. Licensed Idaho real estate agent, LPT Realty.

Published 2026-08-25

Fremont County does not publish what a building permit costs — and it has two Section 4s

The question everyone asks, and the answer nobody prints

"What will the permit cost?" is a reasonable question with an oddly shaped answer in this county. The county is not silent about fees — it publishes a detailed schedule that prices everything from a variance to a road name change. The building permit fee is the specific thing that schedule does not state. That is worth knowing before you spend an evening looking for it, and worth knowing before a builder tells you a number that neither of you can check.

Here is what is actually published. The first four rows were checked on 2026-08-17; the fifth was found on 2026-08-19 and changes the picture.

So there are two adopted schedules, not none — and neither of them prices a building permit. The 2005 ordinance does, but it is twenty-one years old and the county's own current form neither confirms nor contradicts it, because that form states no amounts.

The county prices everything except the thing you came for

The schedule on the Planning page is not a summary or a leaflet. It is four pages of line items, adopted by resolution, and it is thorough to the point of pricing a $20.00 address assignment and a $45.00 hourly rate for research. Here is a representative slice, transcribed on 19 August 2026.

Site Plan Zoning Permit (plus Building Permit) — Single Family Dwelling — $50.00

— Fremont County, Planning and Building Department Fee Schedule, Resolution 2011-16 Exhibit A, effective July 1, 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2026

Read that line slowly, because it is the whole story in one row. The county knows there is a building permit fee. It says so, in parentheses, in its own fee schedule. It prices the zoning permit that accompanies it at fifty dollars and then declines to price the building permit at all. Two separate permits, two separate fees, and only one of them has a published number.

Is the 2011 schedule still live? There is real evidence that it is

The obvious worry about a fee schedule dated 2011 is the same worry this page raises about the 2005 ordinance. In this case there is a check available that the 2005 fees have never had.

The county's Pre-Construction Check List was revised on 17 April 2026, and it charges $50.00 for the site plan review. The 2011 resolution prices a Site Plan Zoning Permit for a single family dwelling at $50.00. A form the county revised this year prints the same amount the 2011 schedule prints. That is not proof that every line still holds, but it is genuine corroboration on the one line a house builder actually pays — and it is exactly the kind of confirmation the 2005 building fees still lack.

Why this page does not print the 2005 figures

It would be easy to reproduce that table and be the only site in the county publishing permit fees. It would also be irresponsible, and it is worth saying why in plain terms.

A real, official, findable document is not necessarily the operative one. An ordinance from 2005 that has never been formally superseded in anything published online may still be in force, may have been replaced by a later resolution, or may have been quietly overtaken by practice. A builder who quotes a stale fee as current is worse than one who says he does not know.

What can honestly be said is the shape of the calculation, which does not go stale the way an amount does:

• Valuation comes first, and it is by construction type. Living space, garage or shop, attached or detached structures, porches, carports and decks, and sheds or barns are each valued at a different rate per square foot — so the total is built from several numbers, not one.
• The permit fee is then read off a bracket table keyed to that valuation, structured as a base amount for the bracket plus a rate for each increment above it.
• Plan review is a percentage of the permit fee, not a separate flat charge — and the percentage is higher when plans have to be sent out of the office for review.
• There is an hourly rate for work charged by time.
• Manufactured homes are priced differently again, on a flat basis rather than by square foot, with single-wide and double-wide treated separately.

The structure is knowable. The amounts should come from the county, today, for your project.

The drafting oddity that explains why it is so hard to find

There is a small, checkable curiosity in the ordinance that says something about how it was assembled. Section 3 sets the ground snow loads. Then:

Section 4. Minimum Frost Depth for Footings: The minimum frost depth for footings shall be 32 inches.

Section 4. Permit Fees: Establishing and adopting a new fee schedule. Applicants shall pay permit and plan review fees in amounts established by the following schedule.

— Fremont County, Idaho, Ordinance No. 2005-02, consecutive sections as printed (fremontcountyid.gov DocumentCenter, retrieved 2026-08-17)

Two consecutive sections, both numbered 4. The county's own adopted ordinance contains the county's entire fee schedule in a section whose number is a duplicate of the one before it — which is the section carrying the 32-inch frost depth this site has already written about at length on the footings page.

It is not a legal problem and nothing turns on it. It is included here because it is exactly the kind of detail that distinguishes a page written by someone who opened the document from one written by someone who read a summary — and because if you ever go looking for "Section 4" of this ordinance, you should know there are two of them.

What to ask when you telephone

Fremont County Building is at the courthouse, 151 W 1st North, St. Anthony, on (208) 624-7200. Going in with the right questions turns one call into an answer rather than three calls into a range.

1. Ask whether Ordinance 2005-02 is still the fee schedule in force, or whether a later resolution has superseded it. This is the question that unlocks everything else, and nobody seems to have asked it publicly.
2. Give them your square footage by type — living space, garage or shop, covered porch or deck — because the schedule's structure prices those separately rather than as one number.
3. Ask what the deposit at submittal is, since the current checklist confirms a deposit is due but not how much.
4. Ask how plan review is charged, and specifically whether it changes if plans have to go out of the office for review. The adopted schedule treats those as different rates.
5. Ask whether anything is charged by the hour, and for what. Re-inspections and extra reviews are the usual candidates.
6. Write the answers down with the date and the name of who gave them, because you will be quoting them to a builder later.

What this means for comparing bids

Permit fees are a genuine cost and they are not the builder's money. Two things follow.

First, a bid that includes "permits" without a figure is carrying an unpriced item, and the honest ones will say so. Ask whether permit fees are included, excluded, or carried as an allowance — the allowances and exclusions page covers why that distinction moves real money.

Second, nobody can quote you a permit fee more accurately than the county will, and the county will do it for the cost of a telephone call. That makes this one of the few line items in a build where the owner can get the authoritative number themselves, first, in an afternoon.

Everything on this page was checked on 2026-08-17 against the county's own Building page, its Pre-Construction Check List (rev. 17 April 2026), its permit application and Ordinance No. 2005-02. County documents are revised without announcement, and the building department is the authority on all of it.

Common questions

What does a building permit cost in Fremont County?

There is still no published amount for the building permit itself. The county's Building page carries five documents and none of them states a fee, and the Pre-Construction Check List says only that fees are based on square footage and the type of construction. The Planning page does publish a full fee schedule, but it prices the zoning permit at $50.00 and writes plus Building Permit without an amount. You have to telephone the building department.

Is there a fee schedule anywhere?

Yes, and there are two of them. The Planning page carries a Planning and Building Department Fee Schedule adopted as Resolution 2011-16, effective 1 July 2011, pricing Class I and Class II permits, variances, appeals and staff services. Ordinance No. 2005-02 carries the building side: a valuation chart, a fee bracket table, plan review percentages and an hourly rate. The 2005 ordinance is the older and the less corroborated of the two.

Why does this page not just print the 2005 figures?

Because a real, official, findable document is not necessarily the operative one. Publishing a twenty-one-year-old fee as though it were current would be worse than publishing nothing. The structure of the schedule is stated here; the amounts should come from the county today.

How is the fee calculated, in structure?

The adopted schedule works from a square-foot valuation that differs by construction type, then applies a fee bracket based on that valuation. Plan review is charged as a percentage of the permit fee, with a different percentage if plans go out of the office, and there is an hourly rate for time.

Is a deposit due when I submit?

Yes. The current Pre-Construction Check List confirms that a deposit is due upon submittal, but it does not state the amount. Ask when you call.

What is the two Section 4s thing?

Ordinance 2005-02 has two consecutive sections both numbered 4. The first sets the 32-inch minimum frost depth for footings; the second adopts the permit fee schedule. Nothing turns on it legally, but it is worth knowing if you go looking for Section 4.

Who do I call?

Fremont County Building, at the courthouse, 151 W 1st North, St. Anthony, on (208) 624-7200.

What is the single most useful question to ask?

Whether Ordinance 2005-02 is still the fee schedule in force, or whether a later resolution superseded it. That answer settles whether any published figure can be relied on at all.

Should a builder's bid include permit fees?

It should be explicit either way. Ask whether permit fees are included, excluded, or carried as an allowance. A bid that says permits without a figure is carrying an unpriced item, and two bids treating them differently are not comparable.