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Change of Use / Certificate of Occupancy in Sidney, Montana

Sidney has NO standalone, separately-published 'Change of Use Permit' or Certificate of Occupancy application/fee distinct from its existing Building Permit process. The Sidney Municipal Code, Title 4 ('Building Regulations'), Chapter 1, Sec. 4-1-3 ('Activities Regulated') establishes that the City's building code 'shall regulate the erection, construction, enlargement, alteration, repair, moving, removal, demolition, conversion, occupancy, equipment, use, height, area and maintenance' of buildings/structures, 'and shall provide for the issuance of permits and collection of fees' (Ord. 473, 5-20-2002) — meaning a change of occupancy or use IS a regulated activity, but it is folded into the same Residential or Commercial Building Permit process (documented elsewhere in this file) rather than issued as its own product, whenever construction/alteration work accompanies the change. Separately, Sidney's Zoning Ordinance (Ord. 593) independently triggers requirements specifically keyed to 'change of use' even with no construction: off-street parking must be provided for the new use per the parking-requirements article, and a Landscape Plan is required for 'changes of use' per the landscaping standards. No dedicated Change-of-Use application form, and no distinct Certificate-of-Occupancy fee, were found on the City of Sidney's own website, its Building Permit Applications, or its (visually-inspected) Fee Schedule PDF, despite an exhaustive search of the City's Fire Marshal/Building Inspector pages, both Building Permit Application forms, the Building Permit Submittal Documents checklist, the full Zoning Code PDF, and the City's Municipal Code Titles 4, 5, 7, and 11 hosted on American Legal Publishing's code library. Richland County — a companion but legally SEPARATE Montana DLI certification sharing the same building official (Kale Rasmussen) and office — publishes its own 'Occupancy Permits' page describing a standard practice of issuing a Certificate of Occupancy after required inspections, or a Certificate of Final Inspection for remodels/small additions in lieu of a full CO; this is documented County practice, not confirmed by any City-of-Sidney-specific source as identically applied inside Sidney city limits. Confidence is marked 'partial' for this reason — this is a genuine, chased-out finding of an unpublished process, not an assumption.

Reviewed 2026-07-22 · Source

When you need this permit

  • A change of use/occupancy of a structure is a regulated activity under Sidney Municipal Code Sec. 4-1-3, which authorizes the City to require permits and collect fees for 'conversion, occupancy, [and] use' changes, in addition to construction activities
  • If the change of use involves any construction, alteration, or remodel work, the standard City of Sidney Residential or Commercial Building Permit process applies (see those entries in this file for full requirements/fees)
  • Off-street parking must be provided for the new use in accordance with the Zoning Ordinance's Off-Street Parking Required Spaces table, whenever an existing use of a structure or land is changed to another use
  • A Landscape Plan is required for changes of use under the Zoning Ordinance's landscaping standards (same trigger as new developments/expansions over 1,000 sq ft of gross floor area)
  • No license shall be issued for the conduct of any business, and no permit shall be issued, if the premises/building does not fully comply with municipal requirements, per Sidney Municipal Code Sec. 5-1-7 ('Building And Premises') — meaning a new Business License (required for most commercial occupants under Title 5, Chapter 1) will not issue until the premises comply, functioning as an informal compliance check tied to occupancy changes
  • No standalone Change-of-Use or Certificate-of-Occupancy application form is published by the City of Sidney; applicants should contact the Fire Marshal/Building Inspector directly to confirm current practice for a specific project

Required documents

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Fee schedule

Building Permit Fee — valuation-based (if construction/alteration accompanies the change of use)City of Sidney/Richland Building Code Enforcement Fee Schedule, Eff. 1/2/18 — same table as commercial-building-permit; no distinct change-of-use or Certificate-of-Occupancy fee line found, confirmed by direct visual inspection of the scanned fee-schedule PDF
$23.50 minimum up to $5,608.75 for the first $1,000,000 plus $3 per additional $1,000 over $1,000,000
Certificate of Occupancy / Change-of-Use-only fee (no construction)No published fee found for a pure occupancy-classification change with no accompanying construction work — this is a genuine gap after exhausting the City's own published materials and Municipal Code; contact the Building Inspector's office (406.433.1122) to confirm current practice
Not published — contact the department

Review timeline

Plan review
Not published — contact the department

How long did your Change of Use / Certificate of Occupancy permit actually take in Sidney?

Anonymous — one question, no email. Answers are combined and only shown once at least 5 people have reported.

Inspection process

    See the full Sidney inspection guide — scheduling & re-inspection fees →

    Tips

    • Sidney does not publish a standalone 'Change of Use Permit' or Certificate of Occupancy application — if your project changes a building's use/occupancy classification, start by contacting Kale Rasmussen (406.433.1122 / buildingofficial@cityofsidneymt.com) to find out whether your specific change needs a Building Permit, a new Business License, or both.
    • Even with zero construction work, changing a use can still trigger new off-street parking and landscaping requirements under the Zoning Ordinance — check these before assuming a 'no work' change of use is paperwork-free.
    • A new Business License will not be issued if the premises don't comply with the City's building/zoning requirements — effectively gating occupancy changes even without a formal CO process.
    • Richland County's public 'Occupancy Permits' page describes a Certificate-of-Occupancy-after-inspection practice for County projects under the same shared building official — useful context, but not confirmed as the City of Sidney's own documented practice; verify directly with the City before relying on it.

    Frequently asked questions

    It depends. If the change of use involves any construction or alteration, a standard Commercial Building Permit is required. Even without construction, the Zoning Ordinance requires off-street parking and landscaping to be reassessed for the new use, and Title 5's Business License process will not issue a license if the premises don't comply with municipal requirements — so in practice most use changes still involve City review, even without a dedicated 'change of use permit' line item.

    In Sidney, the published Building Permit Fee — valuation-based (if construction/alteration accompanies the change of use) is: $23.50 minimum up to $5,608.75 for the first $1,000,000 plus $3 per additional $1,000 over $1,000,000. These are the jurisdiction's own published figures — see the fee schedule table and source citations on this page.

    Sidney does not publish a plan-review timeline for this permit. Contact City of Sidney Fire Marshal / Building Inspector — Kale Rasmussen; city-certified for Building (B), ALL project types (residential and commercial), within Sidney city limits ONLY. Electrical and Plumbing permits of ANY project type within Sidney city limits are issued directly by the Montana Department of Labor & Industry Building Codes Bureau (Sidney holds no state certification in those trades), as is Mechanical/HVAC. at 406.433.1122 for current turnaround.

    Depending on your project, Sidney may also ask for: City of Sidney Residential or Commercial Building Permit Application; City of Sidney Business License Application. See the required-documents checklist on this page for details on each.

    Apply through City of Sidney Fire Marshal / Building Inspector — Kale Rasmussen; city-certified for Building (B), ALL project types (residential and commercial), within Sidney city limits ONLY. Electrical and Plumbing permits of ANY project type within Sidney city limits are issued directly by the Montana Department of Labor & Industry Building Codes Bureau (Sidney holds no state certification in those trades), as is Mechanical/HVAC. at 1105 3rd St NW, Sidney, MT 59270. Phone: 406.433.1122, email: buildingofficial@cityofsidneymt.com; firemarshal@cityofsidneymt.com. Office hours: Not published on the City of Sidney Fire Marshal / Building Inspector pages; call 406.433.1122 or email buildingofficial@cityofsidneymt.com. Fax: 406.433.7509.. Official information: https://cityofsidneymt.com/fire-building.

    Sidney, 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; non-certified trades fall under direct state administration by the DLI Building Codes Bureau. Source: Montana DLI Building Codes Bureau, Certified City, County and Town Programs (bsd.dli.mt.gov/building-codes-permits).; Sidney is a Montana DLI-certified jurisdiction for Building (B), ALL project types, within CITY LIMITS ONLY; certified official on file with DLI: Kale Rasmussen, 480-9113 (city phone format as printed in the roster; the City of Sidney's own published number for the same official is 406.433.1122). Verified directly by fetching and text-extracting the DLI Building Codes Bureau's 'MONTANA CERTIFIED LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROGRAM' roster PDF (updated 04/22/2026): the roster carries TWO SEPARATE line items — 'Richland County | B | Kale Rasmussen | 480-9113 | County except Sidney' and 'Sidney | B | Kale Rasmussen | 480-9113 | City Limits'. This confirms Sidney's own certification is a DISTINCT, SEPARATE entry from Richland County's countywide program, not a subset or duplicate listing — the same certified official (Kale Rasmussen, who is also Richland County's building inspector per richland.org/building.html) administers both programs, but the County's own certification explicitly EXCLUDES Sidney ('County except Sidney'), and Sidney has its own independent 'City Limits' certification. Source: https://bsd.dli.mt.gov/_docs/building-codes-permits/certified-city.pdf; Unlike several Montana B-only-certified cities (e.g., Hardin, Anaconda-Deer Lodge, Colstrip) whose certification is explicitly 'B (residential only)', Sidney's DLI roster entry lists plainly 'B' with no residential-only qualifier — matching the pattern of Choteau/Conrad/Cutbank/Glasgow/Lewistown/Red Lodge, i.e. Sidney's local Building certification covers BOTH residential and commercial building permitting within city limits. Corroborated directly by the City's own published forms: cityofsidneymt.com/fire-building/page/building-permit-applications lists both a 'Residential Building Permit Application' and a two-part 'Commercial Building Permit Application' as separate City-issued forms, each captioned 'WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS OF THE CITY OF SIDNEY.' Source: DLI roster PDF; https://cityofsidneymt.com/fire-building/page/building-permit-applications; Electrical and Mechanical/HVAC permitting are NOT locally certified in Sidney — the DLI roster's Sidney line lists only 'B' (no 'E' or 'M' code), meaning Electrical and Mechanical permits of any project type within Sidney city limits route DIRECTLY to the Montana DLI Building Codes Bureau for state administration, exactly as in a non-certified jurisdiction. Plumbing is likewise not covered by Sidney's own DLI code letter, and is independently confirmed as state-administered by the City's own Residential and Commercial Building Permit Application forms, both of which include a checklist item 'State Plumber Permit (required)' and 'State Electrical Permit (required)' under the Contractor section — direct documentary evidence, from the City's own application forms, that plumbing and electrical permits for construction within Sidney are STATE permits, not city-issued. Source: DLI roster PDF; City of Sidney Residential Building Permit Application PDF; Commercial Building Permit Application PDF; Per the Montana DLI Building Codes Bureau's Current Codes page (statewide effective date June 11, 2022, applicable uniformly to all certified and state-enforced jurisdictions): 2021 IBC, 2021 IRC, 2021 IEBC, 2021 IMC, 2021 IFGC, 2021 IECC, 2021 ISPSC, 2021 UPC, 2020 NEC, 2017 ICC A117.1 Accessibility. Source: bsd.dli.mt.gov/building-codes-permits/current-codes. Local amendments apply — see the Sidney overview page for the full list.

    No standalone Certificate-of-Occupancy application, process, or fee is published on the City of Sidney's website, its Building Permit forms, or its Municipal Code. Sidney Municipal Code Sec. 4-1-3 authorizes the City to regulate 'occupancy' and 'conversion' and to charge permit fees for such activities, but this is administered through the existing Building Permit process (if construction is involved) rather than a distinct CO product. Contact the Building Inspector's office to confirm current practice for your specific project.

    Sources & verification

    Key facts verified against official sources. Last reviewed 2026-07-22.

    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 Sidney building department before you submit. PermitBase is an independent reference and is not affiliated with any government agency.

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