Unincorporated Carbon County building permits
Department contacts, adopted codes, permit types, fees, and gotchas for Unincorporated Carbon County, Utah.
Last verified 2026-07-08 · Source · Embed this page’s badge · Version history
Building department
- Address
- 751 East 100 North, Suite 2600, Price, UT 84501
- Phone
- (435) 636-3260 (Building Division main line / Administrative Assistant); (435) 636-3261 (Director of Building & Planning)
- Office hours
- Mon–Thu 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Fri 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM (Building Department-specific hours per the county's own Building Permits FAQ; distinct from general County Administration hours of Mon–Fri 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM)
- Website
- Official site
Inspection guide
See how inspections work in Unincorporated Carbon 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 — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(a) (https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title15A/Chapter2/15A-2-S103.html), in force statewide since 7/1/2026 and binding on counties under §15A-1-204. Show full textShow less
2024 International Building Code (IBC), including Appendices C and J — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(a) (https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title15A/Chapter2/15A-2-S103.html), in force statewide since 7/1/2026 and binding on counties under §15A-1-204. Carbon County's own Building Permits page 'What codes are enforced?' FAQ still lists the 2021 IBC with Appendix J only (no Appendix C) — the county's own page has not been updated to the current statewide edition.
- 2021 International Residential Code (IRC), including Appendix AQ (the FAQ labels it 'Appendix Q') — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(b)/(c); this edition is UNCHANGED from the prior code cycle. Carbon County's own FAQ lists the 2021 IRC with Appendix Q — consistent with the current statute on the base edition.
- 2024 International Plumbing Code (IPC) — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(d). Carbon County's own FAQ still lists the 2021 IPC — this lags the current statewide edition.
- 2024 International Mechanical Code (IMC) — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(e). Carbon County's own FAQ still lists the 2021 IMC — this lags the current statewide edition.
- 2024 International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC) — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(f). Carbon County's own FAQ still lists the 2021 IFGC — this lags the current statewide edition.
- 2023 National Electrical Code (NEC) — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(g); this edition is unchanged from the prior code cycle. Carbon County's own published FAQ lists the 2020 NEC, one cycle behind the current statewide edition.
- 2024 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), one code with no residential/commercial split — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(h). Carbon County's own Building Permits FAQ does not list any IECC edition at all — added here per the statute, not omitted.
- 2024 International Existing Building Code (IEBC), subject to Utah Code §15A-2-104(2) (the HUD Code) — governs statewide per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(i)/(j). Not listed on Carbon County's own Building Permits FAQ.
- Residential provisions of the 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code (ISPSC) — governs statewide per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(n). Not listed on Carbon County's own Building Permits FAQ.
- Modular Building Institute (MBI) Standards 1200 and 1205 — governs statewide per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(o). Not listed on Carbon County's own Building Permits FAQ.
Permit types & fees
Residential Building Permit (New Home / Cabin)
Required for new single-family home and cabin construction on unincorporated Carbon County land. Issued directly by Carbon County's Building & Planning Department — unincorporated land has no separate city layer, so there is no additional city zoning-approval step (unlike properties within Price, Helper, East Carbon, Wellington, or Scofield Town, which require separate city zoning sign-off, per the Price entry). Instead, unincorporated-area applicants must submit a signed Road Encroachment Agreement. Reviewed under Utah Code §15A-2-103's statewide-adopted codes: 2024 IBC, 2021 IRC (App AQ), 2024 IPC/IMC/IFGC, and 2023 NEC — Carbon County's own FAQ still cites 2021 IBC/IRC (Appendix J/Q)/IPC/IMC/IFGC and 2020 NEC.
Fee not publishedCommercial Building Permit
Required for new commercial and industrial construction on unincorporated Carbon County land. Issued directly by Carbon County's Building & Planning Department — unincorporated land has no city zoning-approval step (unlike Price City), but requires a signed Road Encroachment Agreement, and Industrial-Zone uses require a Conditional Use Permit (up to 2 months) before the building permit can be approved. Carbon County publishes a dedicated 'Commercial and Industrial Structures' checklist distinct from its residential New Home/Cabin packet, identical to the one used for Price City.
Fee not publishedSolar Panel (PV) Permit
Required for rooftop and ground-mounted solar photovoltaic system installation on unincorporated Carbon County land. Carbon County's Building Permits service page explicitly lists 'Solar Panels' among the project types requiring a building permit, and — effective January 1, 2025 — names 'New Construction and Solar' building permit applications specifically as requiring a non-refundable $250.00 deposit, applied as a credit toward the final permit fee. The county does not publish a dedicated solar submittal checklist distinct from its standard plan-set requirements, and (consistent with the rest of this record) no dollar-amount valuation-based fee table beyond the $250 deposit could be located on carbon.utah.gov after a direct re-check of the Building Permits page.
$250.00Commercial Tenant Improvement / Tenant Finish Permit
Required for interior tenant-improvement and tenant-finish work within existing commercial space on unincorporated Carbon County land. Carbon County does not publish a fee category or checklist distinct from new commercial construction — the same Commercial and Industrial Structures checklist and unconditional engineered-plan requirement apply, scoped to the actual work performed.
Fee not publishedEV Charger / EVSE Permit
Carbon County publishes no distinct EV charger / EVSE permit, fee, or checklist item. An EV charger circuit installation in unincorporated Carbon County would be processed under the general Residential or Commercial Building Permit, but the county does not publish any dollar-amount fee table (valuation-based or flat-fee) for building permits at all on its official website — the same gap documented for its Residential Building Permit entry.
Fee not publishedSign Permit (Advertising Sign)
Carbon County DOES have a real, currently-adopted sign ordinance for unincorporated land — Development Code §3.3.26 'Advertising Signs,' most recently amended by Ord. 545 (3/17/2021) — even though this ordinance is not surfaced on the Building Permits or Commercial/Industrial checklist pages (the commercial-building-permit entry previously found no distinct sign process because it only checked the Building Department's own pages, not the separately-hosted Development Code). The permit is issued by the Zoning Administrator (part of the Planning & Zoning function, not the Building Department) for any advertising sign not falling within a list of exempted sign types. No dollar-amount fee for this permit could be located anywhere on the county's official sites (carbon.utah.gov, the Development Code, or the Land Use Applications page's fee list, which covers subdivisions/conditional-use/rezone fees but never mentions signs) — genuinely undocumented, not omitted.
Fee not publishedFire Sprinkler & Fire Alarm Plan Review
Unincorporated Carbon County has no county fire department or dedicated county fire marshal of its own — the county's Emergency Management Services page describes only emergency preparedness, alerting, hazmat, and watershed/wildfire-mitigation functions, with no fire-plan-review capability, and public reporting confirms Carbon County contracts fire suppression response for unincorporated land from the Price, Helper, Wellington, and East Carbon city fire departments rather than running its own department. The commercial-building-permit entry already documents that the county's Commercial and Industrial Structures checklist requires 'Fire sprinkler system plans, if required' as part of the general building-permit submittal, but that checklist does not say who actually reviews those plans. Per Utah Code §53-7-104 (confirmed by direct text retrieval, effective 2/27/2023), the Utah State Fire Marshal automatically has enforcement/plan-review authority only in areas outside any organized fire protection district; where an organized fire protection district covers the area, State Fire Marshal authority applies only 'upon receiving a request from the chief fire official or the local governing body' — a request this record could not confirm as made or standing for unincorporated Carbon County. In practice, the Utah State Fire Marshal's Office publishes statewide submittal forms (Automatic Fire Sprinkler Plan Submittal Form; Fire Alarm Plan Review Submittal Form) used by jurisdictions without their own fire-plan-review capacity, each carrying a fee of $0.022 per square foot of area covered, $75.00 minimum (confirmed by direct retrieval of both official forms 2026-07-22) — the most plausible real-world path for a Carbon County project, but this record cannot confirm as a matter of settled local practice that Carbon County actually routes projects there rather than to one of the contracted city fire departments. Genuinely partial.
From$0.02Change of Use / Change of Occupancy Permit
Carbon County does not publish a standalone 'Change of Use' or 'Certificate of Occupancy' permit application, checklist, or fee distinct from its general Building Permit — the same gap noted under the commercial-tenant-improvement-permit entry. Two distinct county-administered paths cover a change of use or occupancy on unincorporated land: (1) any physical alteration, or any change in a building's occupancy classification, falls under the general Building Permit requirement — the Building Permits page states any owner who intends to '...change the occupancy of a building or structure...must first apply to the Building Department and obtain the required permit,' reviewed under the 2024 International Existing Building Code's Chapter 10 (Change of Occupancy) provisions, adopted statewide per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(i)/(j) (see codesAdopted); (2) separately, for a new or changing BUSINESS at an existing location — regardless of whether any construction occurs — the county's Business License process requires 'Business License Zoning Approval': the Planning & Zoning page states 'all business license applications must get zoning approval by the Planning & Zoning Director,' obtained at Suite 2600 before the Clerk's Office (Suite 1100) will issue the license. That functions as the practical change-of-use compliance check for a new occupant or use with no construction scope, but rides on the Business License Application's own fee rather than a separate change-of-use fee.
$100.00
Property Access
Unincorporated Carbon County's permit history is searchable by address
14,326 permits on record for Unincorporated Carbon County, 1957–2026 — searchable by street address, with permit type, status, issued date and valuation where the city publishes them.
97% of Unincorporated Carbon County's records carry a street address to match against, so a search that finds nothing here means we could not look — not that the property is clear.
New residential construction activity
New privately-owned residential construction onlyHousing units authorized by building permits for new privately-owned residential construction — this is not total permit volume (no commercial permits or remodels).
- Latest month (2026-07)
- 3units
3 buildings · $800,257 valuation
- Trailing 12 months
- 39units
12 of 12 months reported · #83 in Utah coverage by units
- Year to date (2026 YTD through 2026-07)
- 24units
24 buildings · $12.8M valuation
- Full year 2025
- 45units
45 buildings · $19.9M valuation
County-wide figures: Carbon County, UT FIPS 49/007, confirmed against the same U.S. Census Bureau reference used for the Price entry (Price city FIPS 62030 falls within Carbon County, county FIPS 007). This record covers unincorporated Carbon County land only — Price City, Helper, East Carbon, Wellington, and Scofield Town are each their own incorporated jurisdictions and are out of scope here (Price is documented in its own separate entry).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey (BPS), 2026-07 vintage. Census survey data — separate from the permit-requirements verification above. All Utah building activity
Tips & gotchas
- Unincorporated Carbon County land is served DIRECTLY by the same Carbon County Building & Planning Department documented in the Price entry for Price City — this is one consolidated countywide building-permit authority, not a separate program. The department's own page states it serves 'all unincorporated and incorporated areas of the county.'
- The meaningful procedural difference from incorporated-city land: unincorporated applicants do NOT need the separate city zoning-approval step required for property within Price, Helper, East Carbon, Wellington, or Scofield Town limits. Instead, unincorporated applicants must submit a signed Road Encroachment Agreement (if access is from a County road) — per the live Building Permits page this goes to the County Road Shop (435-636-3268), while the New Home/Cabin Checklist packet directs it to the Building Department as a Road Encroachment Permit approved by the Carbon County Road Department. Confirm current routing directly with the Building Department at (435) 636-3260.
- Carbon County publishes no dollar-amount building-permit fee schedule (valuation table or flat-fee list) anywhere on its official website — not on the Building Permits page, Building Department page, Building Information/Resources page, New Home/Cabin Checklist, Planning & Zoning page, Land Use Applications page, or Commission page. The same is true for Price City, served by the same department. Only two dollar figures are published: a $250 non-refundable deposit (New Construction/Solar, credited toward the final fee, effective 1/1/2025) and a $30 non-refundable GIS mapping deposit. No residential-building-permit fee figure is listed rather than fabricated.
- Carbon County's own FAQ still lists the 2021 I-Codes (IBC w/ Appendix J, IRC w/ Appendix Q, IPC, IMC, IFGC) and the 2020 NEC (unchanged) — but Utah Code §15A-2-103 governs statewide and binds counties under §15A-1-204: 2024 IBC (Appendices C & J), 2021 IRC (Appendix AQ, unchanged), 2024 IPC/IMC/IFGC, 2023 NEC (unchanged), 2024 IECC (one code, no residential/commercial split), 2024 IEBC, and residential 2024 ISPSC. Carbon County's own FAQ omits IECC, IEBC, and ISPSC entirely — those are added to codesAdopted above per the statute, not fabricated.
- Utah Code §15A-2-103 (canonical le.utah.gov URL, current version 'Effective 7/1/2026') governs code editions statewide, while Carbon County's own Building Permits FAQ continues to display 2021-cycle editions and a 2020 NEC and does not publish IECC, IEBC, or ISPSC entries at all. The statute is stated as governing above; the county's page is noted as historical context.
- Carbon County publishes an actual review-timeline SLA (up to 14 business days residential / 21 commercial, per the general Building Permits page, with a closely related 15-business-day figure in the New Home/Cabin Checklist) — a genuine, verified turnaround commitment, not an omission. This applies to unincorporated land as much as incorporated-city land; the page draws no distinction.
- Design criteria apply countywide, including unincorporated land: Wind Speed 105 mph exposure C; Seismic Design Category C (D0 west of Helper — this band includes unincorporated land west of Helper); Weathering — Severe; Frost line depth 24 inches (36 inches in the Scofield area, which includes surrounding unincorporated land).
- The Building Department's own office hours (Mon–Thu 8 AM–5 PM, Fri 8 AM–3 PM, per the Building Permits FAQ) run shorter on Fridays than general Carbon County Administration hours (Mon–Fri 8 AM–5 PM) — worth noting for anyone planning an in-person visit on a Friday afternoon.
- Historical archived materials corroborate the countywide fee-publication gap: a 2009 archived snapshot of a now-defunct county page published an actual valuation-based fee table specifically for 'Carbon County Area (outside of the Cities)', and a 2013-archived Building Department Policy PDF confirms a fee-setting County Resolution exists — both are historical corroboration only (10-17 years stale) and are not treated as current figures. The county's current pages confirm the gap remains: no fee table, no sign-permit or fire-sprinkler timeline, and no standalone change-of-use timeline is published. The same gap applies to Price City, served by the same Building Department.