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Building Permit — Residential Building (New Construction / Addition / Remodel) — Townsend, Montana · Requirements sheet
Verified 2026-07-04 · Source: https://townsendmontana.net/
PermitBase is an independent reference and is not affiliated with any government agency. Requirements change and vary by project — confirm current details with the building department before you submit.
Building Permit — Residential Building (New Construction / Addition / Remodel) in Townsend, Montana
Required for new one- and two-family residential construction, additions, remodels, and other structural building work within Townsend city limits, issued by the City of Townsend under its DLI-certified local Building (B) program (2021 IBC/IRC). No dedicated city-published application form or valuation-based fee schedule was located; contact Building Official James Schauber directly, (406) 431-8319.
Verified 2026-07-04 · Source
When you need this permit
- Permit required for building construction, large repairs, roofing, and fence installation, per the City of Townsend's own public notice: 'Please check before doing any building or large repairs, roofing, installing fences, etc. as these need permits.'
- Contact Building Official James Schauber, (406) 431-8319, to initiate the permit application and plan review process — no self-service online application or downloadable PDF form was found published by the city
- Reviewed against the 2021 IBC/IRC as the statewide-adopted editions (effective June 11, 2022) enforced locally by Townsend's certified building official
Required documents
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Fee schedule
Building Permit Fee (new construction, addition, remodel)No fee schedule was found published by the City of Townsend after checking townsendmontana.net (homepage, Notices & Information, Contact Us), townsendmt.com (including the Forms, Applications, Taxes page), and the Townsend municipal code platform. Contact Building Official James Schauber, (406) 431-8319, for the current fee calculation.
Not published — contact the department
Review timeline
Plan review
Not published — contact the department
Inspection process
Tips
- Townsend does not publish a self-service building-permit application, fee schedule, or online portal — contact Building Official James Schauber directly at (406) 431-8319 to start the process.
- No review-timeline figure is published by the City of Townsend for building permits. Unlike East Helena, no independent statutory cross-reference to MCA 50-60-106(2)(c)'s 10-working-day checklist mechanism could be confirmed as applying to Townsend's specific process without over-inferring from the general statute; rather than assert a number the city itself does not publish, reviewTimelineVerified is set to false and reviewTimelineDays is left null.
- Fence installation is explicitly called out by the city's own public notice as requiring a permit, alongside building construction, large repairs, and roofing.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. The City of Townsend's own public notice states that building, large repairs, roofing, and installing fences all require permits within city limits.
Townsend does not publish a plan-review timeline for this permit. Contact City of Townsend — city-certified for Building (B) and Swimming Pool (SP) only; Electrical, Plumbing, and Mechanical permits are issued directly by the Montana Department of Labor & Industry Building Codes Bureau. Building Official of record: James Schauber. at (406) 266-3911 (City Office, general); (406) 431-8319 (James Schauber, Building Official) for current turnaround.
You'll need: Building Permit Application. See the required-documents checklist on this page for details on each.
Apply through City of Townsend — city-certified for Building (B) and Swimming Pool (SP) only; Electrical, Plumbing, and Mechanical permits are issued directly by the Montana Department of Labor & Industry Building Codes Bureau. Building Official of record: James Schauber. at City of Townsend, 110 Broadway, Townsend, MT 59644 (general city administration); Building Official James Schauber, (406) 431-8319 (also principal of Schauber Surveying, Inc., 64 Jack Farm Rd, Townsend, MT 59644). Phone: (406) 266-3911 (City Office, general); (406) 431-8319 (James Schauber, Building Official), email: kari@townsendmontana.net (City Clerk/Treasurer Kari Williams); jenny@townsendmontana.net (Deputy Clerk Jenny Barnett). Office hours: City Office, 110 Broadway, Townsend, MT 59644 — Monday-Wednesday 7:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Thursday 7:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., Friday 8:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., per the City of Townsend Contact Us page. No separate published office hours were found for the Building Official specifically; contact James Schauber directly at (406) 431-8319.. Official information: https://townsendmontana.net/.
Townsend, Montana has adopted: Montana has a mandatory statewide building code administered by the Montana Department of Labor & Industry (DLI) Building Codes Bureau, amended by the Administrative Rules of Montana (ARM) Title 24, Chapter 301. Cities, counties, and towns may become 'certified' to locally administer permitting and inspection for all or part of the code (building, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, swimming pool, WUI, etc.); non-certified trades within a certified jurisdiction, and all trades in non-certified areas, fall under direct state administration by the DLI Building Codes Bureau. Source: Montana DLI Building Codes Bureau, Certified City, County and Town Programs and Current Codes pages (bsd.dli.mt.gov/building-codes-permits).; Townsend is a Montana DLI-certified jurisdiction for Building (B) and Swimming Pool (SP) ONLY within Townsend city limits — James Schauber is the certified building official of record, (406) 431-8319. Townsend is NOT certified for Electrical (E), Plumbing (P), or Mechanical (M); those permits are issued directly by the state DLI Building Codes Bureau for all addresses within Townsend city limits. Source: Montana DLI Building Codes Bureau, 'CITY CODES BUILDING OFFICIAL PHONE JURISDICTION' certified-jurisdictions PDF (https://bsd.dli.mt.gov/_docs/building-codes-permits/certified-city.pdf), updated 04/22/2026 — Townsend row reads 'B, SP / James Schauber / 431-8319 / City Limits'; independently cross-confirmed against the DLI 'Certified City, County and Town Programs' HTML page (bsd.dli.mt.gov/building-codes-permits/certified-government), same B, SP result. Legend on the PDF: B = Building, P = Plumbing, M/G = Medical Gas, E = Electrical, M = Mechanical, SP = Pool, W = WUI (Wildland-Urban Interface).; The City of Townsend's own website (townsendmontana.net) does not publish a dedicated building-permit application form, fee schedule, or online permitting portal as of this research pass — its public-facing content states only that 'The City has adopted Building Codes, has a building inspector and Zoning' and that permits are required for 'building, large repairs, roofing, installing fences, etc.' No city-specific Construction Permit Application PDF (of the kind published by East Helena, for example) was located on townsendmontana.net or the Chamber/community site townsendmt.com after checking the homepage, Notices & Information page, Contact Us page, and the Forms/Applications/Taxes page. Source: City of Townsend homepage, https://townsendmontana.net/; Townsend Notices & Information, https://townsendmontana.net/notices-information/.; 2021 International Building Code (IBC) — statewide edition effective June 11, 2022, adopted by the Montana DLI Building Codes Bureau and enforced locally within Townsend by its DLI-certified building official for the Building trade. Source: Montana DLI Building Codes Bureau, Current Codes page, bsd.dli.mt.gov/building-codes-permits/current-codes.; 2021 International Residential Code (IRC) — statewide edition effective June 11, 2022, applicable to one- and two-family dwelling construction within Townsend city limits under the city's certified Building program. Source: Montana DLI Building Codes Bureau, Current Codes page.; 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) — statewide edition effective June 11, 2022, applicable to new construction reviewed under Townsend's local Building program. Source: Montana DLI Building Codes Bureau, Current Codes page.; 2021 International Existing Building Code (IEBC), 2021 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code (ISPSC), and 2017 ICC A117.1 Accessibility Standard — statewide editions effective June 11, 2022, applicable within Townsend as the locally-enforced editions for the Building and Swimming Pool trades the city is certified for. Source: Montana DLI Building Codes Bureau, Current Codes page.; 2021 International Mechanical Code (IMC), 2021 International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC), 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC), and 2020 National Electrical Code (NEC) all apply within Townsend city limits as the statewide-adopted editions (effective June 11, 2022) but are administered directly by the Montana DLI Building Codes Bureau (Helena), not the City of Townsend, because Townsend holds no local certification for those trades. Source: Montana DLI Building Codes Bureau, Current Codes page; DLI Building Codes Bureau Electrical/Plumbing/Mechanical Permits pages.. Local amendments apply — see the Townsend overview page for the full list.
Contact City of Townsend Building Official James Schauber directly at (406) 431-8319. The City of Townsend is Montana DLI-certified for Building (B) and Swimming Pool (SP) permitting only within city limits; no online application or published fee schedule was found, so applicants should call ahead.
Sources & verification
Verified against official sources. Last reviewed 2026-07-04.
Fees, timelines, and adopted codes are researched from each jurisdiction's published records — see how we verify. Requirements change and vary by project, so always confirm the current details with the Townsend building department before you submit. PermitBase is an independent reference and is not affiliated with any government agency.
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