Unincorporated Cache County building permits

Building department

Address

179 N Main St, Suite 305, Logan, UT 84321

Phone

(435) 755-1650

Email

cachecountyplanreview@gmail.com

Office hours

Mon–Fri 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM (permit pickup/payment ends at 4:45 PM)

Website

Official site

Inspection guide

See how inspections work in Unincorporated Cache County — sequence, scheduling & re-inspection fees.

Codes adopted

Utah adopts construction codes statewide under Utah Code Title 15A (State Construction and Fire Codes Act), enforced by every jurisdiction. Chapter 4 of Title 15A codifies Legislature-enacted amendments for specific named jurisdictions (e.g., Park City, Salt Lake City, Sandy City) as part of the state construction code. Through June 30, 2026, the editions in force under Utah Code § 15A-2-103 are the 2021 IBC (with Appendices C and J), 2021 IRC, 2021 IPC, 2021 IMC, 2021 IFGC, 2021 IECC, 2021 IEBC, and 2021 ISPSC (residential provisions), together with the 2023 NEC. Effective July 1, 2026, § 15A-2-103 adopts the 2024 editions of the IBC, IPC, IMC, IFGC, IECC, IEBC, and ISPSC; the IRC remains the 2021 edition and the NEC remains the 2023 edition. Note: residential energy requirements are modified by statewide amendments, and several Utah jurisdictions document their residential energy provisions at the 2015 IECC level rather than the adopted IECC year — confirm the applicable residential energy code with your local jurisdiction. Always confirm the edition in force with your local jurisdiction.

• 2024 International Building Code (IBC), including Appendices C and J — Utah Code § 15A-2-103(1)(a); current edition as of July 1, 2026 (2021 edition governed through June 30, 2026)
• 2021 International Residential Code (IRC), plus Appendix AQ of the 2021 IRC — Utah Code § 15A-2-103(1)(b)/(c); unchanged by the July 1, 2026 revision — still the current edition
• 2024 International Plumbing Code (IPC) — Utah Code § 15A-2-103(1)(d); current edition as of July 1, 2026 (2021 edition governed through June 30, 2026)
• 2024 International Mechanical Code (IMC) — Utah Code § 15A-2-103(1)(e); current edition as of July 1, 2026 (2021 edition governed through June 30, 2026)
• 2024 International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC) — Utah Code § 15A-2-103(1)(f); current edition as of July 1, 2026 (2021 edition governed through June 30, 2026)
• 2024 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) — Utah Code § 15A-2-103(1)(h); current edition as of July 1, 2026 (2021 edition governed through June 30, 2026); statute has no residential/commercial split — one edition applies to both. NOTE (county page live-checked 2026-07-16): the Cache County Building Code Information page lists 2024 IECC in its main statewide-codes list but separately carries a 'Residential Code: 2021 IRC and the 2021 IECC' line for dwellings up to a duplex — that residential IECC carve-out lags the statute, which adopts a single 2024 IECC edition with no residential/commercial split; the statewide 2024 IECC governs.
• 2024 International Existing Building Code (IEBC) — Utah Code § 15A-2-103(1)(i); current edition as of July 1, 2026 (2021 edition governed through June 30, 2026)
• 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code (ISPSC), residential provisions — Utah Code § 15A-2-103(1)(n); current edition as of July 1, 2026 (2021 edition governed through June 30, 2026)
• 2023 National Electrical Code (NEC) — Utah Code § 15A-2-103(1)(g); statewide in force, unchanged by the July 1, 2026 revision. NOTE: The Cache County Building Code Information page (last seen 2026-06-30) still lists '2020 NEC' — that page is not updated; the statewide 2023 NEC is the legally in-force edition.
• NOTE (verified 2026-07-16 against the live Utah Code § 15A-2-103 text, version headed 'Effective 7/1/2026 / Superseded 1/1/2027'): the 2024 editions of IBC, IPC, IMC, IFGC, IECC, IEBC, and ISPSC listed above took effect July 1, 2026, replacing the 2021 editions; IRC (2021) and NEC (2023) did not change. The 1/1/2027 version of the statute carries identical editions, so no further flip is expected then. This file previously forecast this change but still led with the 2021 editions as current — corrected on this date.

Permit types & fees

• Residential Building Permit

  Required for new residential construction, additions, and structural alterations in unincorporated Cache County. The Cache County Building Division issues permits for unincorporated county areas and many incorporated municipalities (Amalga, Avon, Benson, Cornish, Cove, Hyrum, Millville, Paradise, Petersboro, Providence, Richmond, River Heights, Smithfield, Trenton, Wellsville). Logan City and several others issue their own permits.

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• Electrical Permit

  Required for electrical meter upgrades, new service, generator installations, and other electrical work in unincorporated Cache County. Governed by the 2023 National Electrical Code (NEC) as adopted statewide by Utah Code § 15A-2-103(1)(g). Note: the County's Building Code Information page shows '2020 NEC' but the statewide 2023 NEC is legally in force. EV charger/EVSE installation is electrical work and falls under this general Electrical Permit; the county's Building Division Fee Schedule does not publish an EV-specific line item.

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• Mechanical / HVAC Permit

  Required for furnace/AC replacement and gas line/meter upgrades in unincorporated Cache County. The county FAQ indicates simple furnace replacements may use a utility permit — call to confirm. Governed by the 2024 International Mechanical Code (IMC) / 2024 International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC) as adopted by Utah Code § 15A-2-103, effective July 1, 2026 (2021 editions governed through June 30, 2026).

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• Plumbing Permit

  Required for plumbing installations, alterations, and repairs including water heater replacement in unincorporated Cache County. Governed by the 2024 International Plumbing Code (IPC) as adopted by Utah Code § 15A-2-103, effective July 1, 2026 (2021 edition governed through June 30, 2026). The fee schedule lists water heater replacement as its own line item at $75.

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• Roofing Permit

  Required for roof replacement and re-roofing in unincorporated Cache County. The fee schedule lists a flat 'Reroof' fee.

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• Solar Panel Permit

  Required for installation of rooftop or ground-mounted solar photovoltaic systems in unincorporated Cache County. The county FAQ confirms rooftop solar needs a building permit but does not need a zoning clearance. Ground pedestal solar also does not need a zoning clearance but requires a building permit.

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• Deck Permit

  Required for new deck, patio, or covered porch construction in unincorporated Cache County. The fee schedule lists a flat 'Deck/Patio/Covered Porch' fee.

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• Fence Permit

  Required for fences over 7 feet tall in unincorporated Cache County. The county FAQ explicitly states: 'Fences not exceeding 7 ft tall — Permit not required.'

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• Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)

  Required for construction of an internal or detached ADU in unincorporated Cache County. The fee schedule lists separate fee items for Internal ADU and Detached ADU (which uses the same fee tiers as new SFD construction). Contact Planning & Zoning for zoning eligibility.

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• Basement Finish Permit

  Required for finishing or remodeling an unfinished basement in unincorporated Cache County. The fee schedule lists a flat 'Basement Finish' fee. Note: basement finish inspections are physically inspected only if there is an outside entrance and the owner/contractor is present.

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• Demolition Permit

  Required for demolition or removal of any structure in unincorporated Cache County. The state of Utah requires all structures to be demolished or moved to have a Demolition Permit.

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• Swimming Pool Permit

  Required for in-ground and above-ground swimming pool installation in unincorporated Cache County. The fee schedule lists a flat swimming pool fee.

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• Retaining Wall Permit

  Required for retaining walls over 4 feet in height (measured from bottom of footing to top of wall) in unincorporated Cache County. The county FAQ explicitly states retaining walls over 4 feet are required to have engineered plans and stamped.

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• Commercial Building Permit

  Required for new commercial construction, additions, and remodels in unincorporated Cache County. The Cache County Building Division Fee Schedule (Ord. 2024-18) contains a dedicated COMMERCIAL PERMITS section with its own 'New Construction, Addition & Remodel (Commercial)' valuation table, separate from the residential/unincorporated SFD table used for houses. Plan review on commercial permits is 65% of the base fee (versus 15% on most residential permit types), and the state adds its standard 1% surcharge.

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• Commercial Tenant Improvement / Tenant Finish Permit

  Required for tenant improvement (tenant finish) work in existing commercial buildings in unincorporated Cache County — interior build-outs, remodels, and finish work for a new or changing tenant space. Listed as its own 'Tenant Improvement/Finish' line item in the COMMERCIAL PERMITS section of the county's fee schedule (Ord. 2024-18), distinct from and generally cheaper than the 'New Construction, Addition & Remodel (Commercial)' table. The three lowest valuation tiers are billed as a flat fee with no added plan-review percentage; the schedule switches to a base fee plus 65% plan-review percentage at $500,000+ valuation.

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• Sign Permit

  Required in unincorporated Cache County for commercial signage. Per the Cache County Building Division Fee Schedule (Ord. 2024-18, adopted 11/6/2024), a Sign Permit (Commercial) has a $200 Base Fee plus a $75 Plan Review Fee — a flat-dollar plan review, not the percentage-of-base-fee rate used for larger commercial valuation tiers on the same schedule.

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• New Construction Fire District Inspection (With Sprinklers and Fire Alarm)

  Cache County Fire District — a special fire service district separate from the Cache County Building Division that issues the general building permit — charges its own New Construction inspection fee under its 2026 Fee Schedule, and that fee is priced differently depending on whether the new construction includes fire sprinklers and a fire alarm. There is no separate stand-alone 'fire sprinkler permit' or 'fire alarm permit' application; the presence of sprinklers/alarm instead moves the project into a higher New Construction inspection fee tier. Re-chased 2026-07-20: the fee schedule is published as a single-page embedded graphic (not text) on the district's site; decoded and visually read the complete image directly rather than relying on any prior extraction — it is a single one-page 'Inspections & Permits' table covering every fee the district charges (Daycare, Special Events, New Business License, New Construction with/without sprinklers+alarm, Food Truck, Cooking Hood, Fireworks, Zoning Clearance, Agriculture Zoning Clearance, re-inspections, plus a $65/hr catch-all rate and Emergency Medical Services rates). No separate fire sprinkler/alarm plan-review or permit line exists anywhere on this document beyond the New Construction inspection tiers already captured below — this is confirmed to be the complete, exhaustive fee list for the district.

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• Zoning Clearance

  Cache County Development Services (Planning & Zoning) requires a Zoning Clearance before most building permit applications can be submitted. County Code Title 17 (adopted by Ordinance No. 2013-02) defines a Zoning Clearance as 'an acknowledgment, provided by the zoning administrator, or designee, identifying that the proposed use, building, structure, or facility complies to the requirements of this Title.' This is a Planning & Zoning-level land-use compliance review, separate from and required before the Building Division's building permit review — the county's own Zoning Clearance Application form states directly: 'Do not submit for a building permit until a zoning clearance has been approved and received.' The form is oriented primarily toward proposed new/modified structures (site plan, floor plan, elevations, dimensions), but its own acknowledgment text also ties any change in use to this same process: 'Any changes in type of structure or placement will require a new zoning clearance.' This file's existing tipsAndGotchas already flagged the Zoning Clearance's existence at a high level; this entry adds its fee, document, and timeline detail. FEE DISCREPANCY RESOLVED 2026-07-20: re-chased the $75/$30 (current form) vs. $250/$125/$100/$50 (2024 news report) conflict directly against the county's own fee resolution rather than either the form or the news article alone. Findings: (1) the Zoning Clearance Application form was re-fetched live and still reads 'Fee: Primary - $75' / 'Accessory/Agricultural - $30.' (2) Cache County's official Land Use Fee Schedule PDF (cachecounty.gov/assets/department/devserv/feeschedule/Fee Schedule.pdf, letterhead-stamped 'Resolution 2018-16') was re-fetched and rendered to an image for a line-by-line visual read (its pdftotext output is column-jumbled) — it independently confirms the identical figures: 'Zoning Clearance - Primary Use: $75' / 'Zoning Clearance - Accessory Use: $30.' (3) The original Cache Valley Daily article (Oct 23, 2024) was re-fetched directly and quotes the fee proposal verbatim: 'zoning clearance applications for primary use, accessory use, agriculture use and third review, which are $75, $30, $30 and $0 respectively. The proposed increase would raise the prices for those services to $250, $125, $100 and $50' — confirming $75/$30 as the PRE-increase baseline the article itself cites, with $250/$125/$100/$50 as the proposed new tier presented by Development Services Director Stephen Nelson (one of three proposals he presented, with the smallest-increase option recommended for adoption) at the Oct. 22, 2024 Council meeting. (4) Separately, Cache County's Building Division Fee Schedule PDF (cachecounty.gov/assets/department/devserv/Building fees adopted 2024.pdf) is explicitly stamped 'Adopted on 11/6/2024 as Ord. 2024-18' and its building-fee dollar figures exactly match the Cache Valley Daily article's reported building-fee numbers (e.g. $3,480 for a $350,000 home) — confirming Ord. 2024-18 is real, was adopted, and did raise Building Division fees as reported. However, no analogous 'Land Use fees adopted 2024' document exists anywhere discoverable on cachecounty.gov, and the Land Use/Zoning Fee Schedule PDF that does exist is still stamped with the older 'Resolution 2018-16' and shows the pre-increase $75/$30 figures — meaning Ord. 2024-18's land-use/zoning-clearance fee increase, even though reported as approved in the same Oct. 22, 2024 meeting, was either not carried into the final adopted ordinance text, was adopted but never implemented in the county's published Land Use fee documentation, or was reversed — the Building Division side of the same fee package was clearly implemented and documented, while the Land Use/Zoning side was not. Given TWO independent, currently-live official Cache County documents (the application form and the Land Use Fee Schedule) both agree on $75/$30 as of a direct 2026-07-20 check — nearly two years after the reported Council vote — $75/$30 is treated here as the currently-effective, governing figure. The county code's own 'FEE SCHEDULE' section (hosted on a JavaScript-driven municipalcodeonline.com portal) could not be read directly — its content API returned 'Unauthorized Access' to a non-browser fetch — so a definitive ordinance-text-level confirmation was not obtainable; applicants budgeting a Primary-use Zoning Clearance above $75 should still call Development Services, (435) 755-1640, to rule out an internal fee-schedule update that hasn't reached either public document.

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• EV Charger / EVSE Permit

  Cache County's Building Division Fee Schedule (Ord. 2024-18) does not publish a distinct EV charger / EVSE line item. The schedule prices standalone electrical scopes under named categories — Electrical Meter Upgrade ($75), Generator Permit ($100), and Generlink Transfer Switch Permit ($75) — but does not name EV chargers or charging stations in either the residential or commercial fee tables.

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• Certificate of Occupancy / Change of Occupancy

  Cache County does not publish a free-standing 'Change of Use Permit' application separate from its general Building Permit process. The county's own Building Permit Application document (BP_Application_Editable2024Updated.pdf, item 7, 'Certificate of Occupancy. Use and change of occupancy') states directly: 'A building or structure shall not be used or occupied in whole or part, and a change of occupancy of a building or structure or portion thereof shall not be made, until the building official has issued a certificate of occupancy therefor as provided herein. Issuance of a certificate of occupancy shall not be construed as an approval of a violation of the provision of this code or of other ordinances of the jurisdiction.' The document cites this to '2021 International Residential Code: Certificate of Occupancy R110,' though the same general Building Permit Application form (which includes a 'Structure use type' field, item 3) is used for both residential and commercial projects, and Utah's statewide-adopted 2024 International Building Code carries the identical Certificate-of-Occupancy provision at IBC Section 111.1 for commercial structures — both R110.1 and 111.1 are the same standard ICC model-code language. For an actual change of occupancy classification in an existing building (not new construction), the applicable code chapter is IEBC Chapter 10 'Change of Occupancy' within the statewide-adopted 2024 International Existing Building Code (Utah Code § 15A-2-103(1)(i)) — Cache County does not publish a separate application, checklist, or fee schedule specific to this scenario; a project of this kind is processed through the same Building Permit Application / plan review channel (cachecountyplanreview@gmail.com) as any other permit, with the reviewing official determining what code-compliance work, if any, the change of use triggers under IEBC Chapter 10.

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