South Salt Lake building permits
VerifiedDepartment contacts, adopted codes, permit types, fees, and gotchas for South Salt Lake, Utah.
Last verified 2026-07-23 · Source · Embed this page’s badge · Version history
Building department
- Address
- 220 E Morris Avenue, Suite 150, South Salt Lake, UT 84115
- Phone
- (801) 483-6063, ext. 2
- Office hours
- Mon–Fri 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM, per South Salt Lake's official Building Department contact listing. Inspection scheduling by phone at (801) 483-6032; Right-of-Way, Demolition, and Sign Permits handled via ext. 3.
- Website
- Official site
- Permit portal
- Apply online at South Salt Lake's portal
Inspection guide
See how inspections work in South Salt Lake — 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.
- International Building Code (IBC) and International Residential Code (IRC), as adopted by the State of Utah and published by the International Code Council (ICC), adopted as the Building Code of South Salt Lake City together with Utah Administrative Code Rule R156-56, per South Salt Lake Municipal Code § 8.10.010 (Ord. No. 2020-06, § VI, 6-3-2020). Local amendments include: Appendix J of the 2012 IBC adopted with an added grading-permit requirement (§8.10.010.A); Appendix P of the 2006 IRC adopted (§8.10.010.B).
- International Fire Code (IFC), as adopted by the State of Utah and published by ICC, adopted as the Fire Code of South Salt Lake City, including Appendix D, per Municipal Code § 8.10.020.
- International Mechanical Code (IMC) and International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC), as adopted by the State of Utah and published by ICC, adopted as the Mechanical Code of South Salt Lake City, per Municipal Code § 8.10.040.
- International Plumbing Code (IPC), as adopted by the State of Utah and published by ICC, adopted as the city's Plumbing Code, with Sections 106.1 and 107.1 of the 2012 IPC locally amended to require permits/fees per the consolidated fee schedule, per Municipal Code § 8.10.070.
- National Electrical Code (NEC), as adopted by the National Fire Protection Association and the State of Utah, adopted as the Electrical Code of South Salt Lake City including all city and state amendments, per Municipal Code § 8.10.080.
- Uniform Housing Code, 1997 edition (International Conference of Building Officials), adopted as the Housing Code of South Salt Lake City, per Municipal Code § 8.10.050.
- Uniform Administrative Code (International Conference of Building Officials) adopted, with fee chapters applied only to the extent they do not conflict with South Salt Lake's own code, per Municipal Code § 8.10.060.
- Uniform Code for Building Conservation (International Conference of Building Officials), adopted with all appendices, per Municipal Code § 8.10.090.
- Uniform Code for the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings, 1997 edition (International Conference of Building Officials), adopted per Municipal Code § 8.10.100.
- All technical codes above are adopted by reference except where they conflict with Utah Code Title 15A and the technical codes adopted therein (the statewide framework), per Municipal Code § 8.10.010.F.
Permit types & fees
Residential Building Permit (New Construction / Addition / Remodel)
Required for new single-family residential construction, additions, structural modifications, and most residential building system work in South Salt Lake. The Total Building Permit Fee is valuation-based, computed from current ICC Building Valuation Data (ICCBVD) per the city's own formula, rather than a flat table, per the official Consolidated Fee Schedule (last amended by Ord. No. 2025-17, 5-28-2025).
Fence Permit
Required in South Salt Lake for any fence constructed of masonry material (any height) or exceeding 6 feet in height (any material); wood fences under 6 feet do not require a permit, per the city's official Building Permits FAQ. Governed by the zoning fence-height and clear-view standards in Title 17.
Re-Roof Permit
Required for any building reroofing project in South Salt Lake, per the city's official Building Permits FAQ. Billed as an over-the-counter flat fee scaled by roof area (or by scope for residential re-roof work), per the Consolidated Fee Schedule.
Demolition Permit
Required for demolition of any building in South Salt Lake, billed as an over-the-counter flat fee scaled by building type/use, per the Consolidated Fee Schedule.
Sign Permit
Required for building-mounted, freestanding, or billboard signage in South Salt Lake, billed as an over-the-counter flat fee (electrical work for illuminated signs billed separately). Handled via the Building Permits office's dedicated Sign Permit contact line.
Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Permit
Required for construction or establishment of an Internal or External Accessory Dwelling Unit in South Salt Lake, per Municipal Code § 17.04.030.B (approval chain, unit caps, owner-occupancy, Short-Term Rental ban) and § 17.07.060.I-J (lot/size/height/parking development standards). § 17.04.030.B was amended by Ordinance No. 2026-12 to move its numeric development standards into § 17.07 rather than stating them itself — confirmed live 2026-07-23, with the underlying figures unchanged. Requires a Predevelopment Application, evidence of owner-occupancy, a Building Permit application, and (if the ADU will be rented) a Rental Business License, per the city's official ADU Handbook.
Electrical / Mechanical / Plumbing Trade Permit (Residential Replacements & Upgrades)
Covers common residential trade work in South Salt Lake — electrical service upgrades, furnace/AC/swamp-cooler replacement, water heater replacement, sprinkler installation, and similar items — each billed as its own over-the-counter flat fee under the Consolidated Fee Schedule, distinct from the valuation-based new-construction Building Permit Fee. EV charger/EVSE installation is electrical work and falls under this same trade-permit process; the Consolidated Fee Schedule does not publish a distinct EV-charger fee line item. Rooftop solar PV installation similarly requires both a structural (Building) permit and an electrical permit under this same process — the city's detailed Over the Counter Flat Fees list (fence, reroof, demolition, sign, electrical service, AC/furnace/swamp-cooler/water-heater replacement, sprinkler, gas meter) contains no distinct 'solar' or 'photovoltaic' line item (Consolidated Fee Schedule § 3.11.040.A, checked directly 2026-07-19), so solar electrical work is billed under the applicable general electrical-service flat fee or the valuation-based Building Permit Fee formula, and coordinates with Engineering and the Fire Marshal's Office per the city's general permit-coordination practice.
Commercial Building Permit
Required for new commercial construction and structural work in South Salt Lake, regulated by the city's adopted IBC (Municipal Code § 8.10.010) and reviewed against the city's own published Commercial Plan Submittal Checklist. The Total Building Permit Fee uses the same city-wide valuation formula as the Residential Building Permit — Building Fee (B) = local multiplier x Gross ICC Building Valuation Data (ICCBVD) valuation; Plan Check Fee (P) = B x 0.65; State Surcharge Fee (Y) = B x 0.01 — per Consolidated Fee Schedule § 3.11.040.A.
Commercial Tenant Improvement / Tenant Finish Permit
Required for commercial tenant improvement and tenant finish work in South Salt Lake, reviewed against the city's own published Tenant Improvement Plan Submittal Checklist. Fees use the same city-wide valuation formula as new commercial construction (Consolidated Fee Schedule § 3.11.040.A) — South Salt Lake does not publish a separate tenant-improvement-specific fee tier.
EV Charger / EVSE Permit
South Salt Lake does not publish a distinct EV-charger/EVSE fee category. Installing electric vehicle charging equipment (EVSE) is electrical work and is processed through the same over-the-counter trade-permit path as other residential/commercial electrical work, billed under the applicable flat fee in the Consolidated Fee Schedule's electrical-service line items (e.g. Electrical Service Inside Upgrade / Electrical Service Upgrade 200A or less) rather than a standalone EV-specific charge. This is confirmed directly by South Salt Lake's own electrical-mechanical-plumbing-permit entry, which states EV charger/EVSE installation falls under this same trade-permit process and that the Consolidated Fee Schedule carries no distinct EV-charger line item (checked directly 2026-07-19).
Solar Panel / Photovoltaic (PV) Installation Permit
South Salt Lake tracks rooftop, ground-mount, and carport-mount solar photovoltaic (PV) installations — including battery-storage additions to existing solar — as their own distinct permit-type case category, labeled 'Solar Panels' and issued under a dedicated 'SP' permit-number prefix (e.g. SP25-0903, SP25-0923, SP25-0870, SP25-0935, SP25-0918, SP25-0959), confirmed directly in the city's own official monthly Community Development Permit Reports published on sslc.gov. However, the Consolidated Fee Schedule § 3.11.040.A contains no distinct 'solar' or 'photovoltaic' fee line item — confirmed by a direct full-text check of the fee schedule on 2026-07-21, which turned up zero mentions of 'solar' or 'photovoltaic.' Solar installations are instead billed under the same city-wide valuation-based Building Permit Fee formula used for other non-flat-fee, valuation-tracked work: Building Fee (B) = local multiplier x project valuation; Plan Check Fee (P) = B x 0.65; State Surcharge Fee (Y) = B x 0.01. This is confirmed by the city's own Building Permit Application, which requires a 'Valuation of Project (Not New Construction – Includes Labor and Materials)' field for exactly this kind of work, and corroborated by the real dollar valuations recorded against 'Solar Panels' (SP) permits in the city's official November 2025 permit report — e.g. $499,113.00 for a Creative Energies solar expansion/new-building install, $41,974.00 for a Spring Solar 7.2 kW/18-panel array, and $22,300.00 for an ES Solar battery addition to an existing system — unlike the flat-fee 'Residential/Commercial Counter Review' trade permits (fences, reroofs, AC/furnace/water-heater swaps) in the same report, which carry no valuation figure at all.
Fire Sprinkler / Fire Alarm System Permit
South Salt Lake's own municipal Fire Department (not Unified Fire Authority) — via the Office of the Fire Marshal — reviews and permits automatic fire sprinkler system and fire alarm system installations, modifications, and repairs. Both system types are filed through the same online South Salt Lake Fire Department Permit + Inspection Portal 'Fire Permit Application,' which the city's own official Portal Guide states also covers underground fire lines, clean agent/hood systems/paint booths, tent/temporary structures, firework stands, and high-piled racking. Fees are billed separately for sprinkler vs. alarm work, scaled by covered square footage, per Consolidated Fee Schedule § 3.11.040.C ('Fire Marshal Inspections').
Change of Use / Certificate of Occupancy Review
South Salt Lake does not issue a standalone 'change of use permit' product distinct from its Business Licensing process. Per the city's own official Business Licensing FAQ: 'If your proposed use is allowed in the zoning district and is a change of use from prior uses, the building and site will be required to be brought into current compliance with all Municipal Code, Building Code and Fire Code requirements.' In practice this means a new Business License Application (required for any new business or change of ownership regardless of use change, per Municipal Code § 5.02.040), a zoning-use check against Title 17, a business/fire compliance inspection, and — where the use or occupancy classification actually changes — a Certificate of Occupancy inspection billed at a flat fee under Consolidated Fee Schedule § 3.11.040.A, plus a Building Permit if compliance work requires construction.
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 (2026-05)
- 0units
0 buildings · $0 valuation
- Trailing 12 months
- 284units
12 of 12 months reported · #26 in Utah coverage by units
- Year to date (2026 YTD through 2026-05)
- 0units
0 buildings · $0 valuation
5 month(s) reported to Census
- Full year 2025
- 292units
38 buildings · $98.9M valuation
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey (BPS), 2026-05 vintage. Census survey data — separate from the permit-requirements verification above. All Utah building activity
Tips & gotchas
- South Salt Lake commits to a 15-business-day review of complete building permit applications, with comments emailed to the applicant contact; applications expire after 180 days, per the city's official Building Permits page and FAQ — this is one of the few UT jurisdictions in this dataset with a published, verified plan-review turnaround figure.
- The city runs a dual fee structure: most new construction/additions/remodels use a valuation-based Building Permit Fee formula (Building Fee x local multiplier from ICC Building Valuation Data, plus a 65% Plan Check Fee and 1% State Surcharge), while many common trade replacements and simple projects (fences, reroofs, demolition, signs, AC/furnace/water-heater swaps) use flat 'over the counter' fees instead, per Consolidated Fee Schedule § 3.11.040.A.
- Fence permits are only required for masonry fences (any height) or fences over 6 feet (any material) — a wood fence under 6 feet needs no permit at all, per the official Building Permits FAQ. Height caps per Municipal Code § 17.07.060.E (confirmed live 2026-07-23): front yards 4 feet, corner side yards 6 feet, rear yards 6 feet — there is no code provision for an 8-foot fence in any yard.
- ADUs require a 4-step approval chain — Predevelopment Application, evidence of owner-occupancy, Building Permit, and (if rented) Rental Business License — plus impact/utility-connection fees, and are capped at one Internal + one External ADU per lot with mandatory owner-occupancy and a Short-Term Rental ban, per Municipal Code § 17.04.030.B and the city's official ADU Handbook.
- Starting construction before permit issuance triggers an additional fee equal to 100% of the Building Fee on top of the normal permit cost, separate from any citation or criminal-penalty exposure, per the Consolidated Fee Schedule and the Building Permits FAQ.
- Right-of-Way, Demolition, and Sign Permits are routed through a dedicated ext. 3 contact line distinct from the main Building Permits desk, per the official staff directory.
- South Salt Lake's adopted code stack is a mix of vintages — a 2012 IBC Appendix J amendment and a 2006 IRC Appendix P adoption sit alongside the general 'as adopted by the State of Utah' IBC/IRC/IMC/IPC/NEC references — so always confirm current edition specifics against the live State of Utah Title 15A framework rather than assuming a single edition year applies citywide.
- No jurisdiction-published review-timeline figure was found for the flat-fee 'over the counter' permit types (fence, reroof, demolition, sign, and routine trade replacements) — these may in practice be issued same-day/same-visit, but that is not confirmed in writing, so reviewTimelineDays is honestly left null with a note for each rather than assumed equal to the general 15-business-day complete-application figure.
- 2026-07-23 full spot-audit: all 18 previously cited sources were re-fetched and were readable. The Consolidated Fee Schedule § 3.11.040 (Building Permit formula, all Over-the-Counter flat fees, all three impact fees including the Culinary Water Impact Fee, Fire Marshal Inspection fees) and Chapter 8.10 code-adoption text were re-checked verbatim against the live Municode page and matched this dataset exactly — no drift found there, and both impact-fee subsections are already codified through their most recent amending ordinances (Ord. No. 2024-11, 7-31-2024 for drinking-water impact fees; Ord. No. 2025-17, 5-28-2025 for wastewater impact fees), so no silently-superseded impact-fee document was found. Two real drifts WERE found and corrected: (1) the fence height table had an unsupported '8 feet in side/rear yards with a permit' figure that does not exist in the live Municipal Code § 17.07.060.E (current code: front 4 ft / corner side 6 ft / rear 6 ft, no side-yard or 8-ft provision), most recently amended by Ord. No. 2025-32 (7-9-2025); (2) Municipal Code § 17.04.030.B was amended by Ordinance No. 2026-12 to remove its ADU numeric development standards (lot size/width/size/height/parking) in favor of a cross-reference to § 17.07.060.I-J, where those standards (unchanged in substance) now live — this dataset's ADU citations were updated accordingly.