Zoning Clearance in Unincorporated Cache County, Utah

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.' On the fee, two sets of figures have circulated: $75/$30 on the county's current documents, and a $250/$125/$100/$50 tier reported in an October 2024 news account of a proposed increase. The county's own documents agree on the lower figures: the Zoning Clearance Application form reads 'Fee: Primary - $75' / 'Accessory/Agricultural - $30,' and Cache County's official Land Use Fee Schedule PDF (cachecounty.gov/assets/department/devserv/feeschedule/Fee Schedule.pdf, letterhead-stamped 'Resolution 2018-16') independently confirms the identical figures: 'Zoning Clearance - Primary Use: $75' / 'Zoning Clearance - Accessory Use: $30.' The Cache Valley Daily article (Oct 23, 2024) 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' — so $75/$30 is the pre-increase baseline the article itself cites, with $250/$125/$100/$50 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. 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 article's reported building-fee numbers (e.g. $3,480 for a $350,000 home) — confirming Ord. 2024-18 was adopted and did raise Building Division fees as reported. However, no analogous 'Land Use fees adopted 2024' document appears anywhere 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, though reported as approved in the same Oct. 22, 2024 meeting, was either not carried into the final adopted ordinance text, adopted but never implemented in the county's published Land Use fee documentation, or reversed; the Building Division side of the same fee package was clearly implemented and documented, while the Land Use/Zoning side was not. With two currently-live official Cache County documents (the application form and the Land Use Fee Schedule) agreeing on $75/$30 as of mid-2026 — nearly two years after the reported Council vote — $75/$30 is the currently-effective, governing figure. The fee provisions in the county code's own 'FEE SCHEDULE' section (hosted on a municipalcodeonline.com portal) have not been separately confirmed at the ordinance-text level, so applicants budgeting a Primary-use Zoning Clearance above $75 should call Development Services, (435) 755-1640, to rule out an internal fee-schedule update that has not reached either public document.

Verified 2026-08-15 · Source