Unincorporated Tooele County building permits
VerifiedDepartment contacts, adopted codes, permit types, fees, and gotchas for Unincorporated Tooele County, Utah.
Last verified 2026-07-03 · Source · Embed this page’s badge · Version history
Building department
- Address
- 47 South Main Street, Room 208, Tooele, UT 84074
- Phone
- (435) 843-4737
- Office hours
- Not published on tooeleco.gov as of 2026-07-04 — the Building Inspection page and Building Permits page list contact info (phone, fax, email) but no posted office hours. General county offices are listed at 47 S. Main St., Tooele, UT 84074, main line (435) 843-3100. A separate Building & Zoning Questions line, (435) 843-3160, and a Fire Department Questions line, (435) 833-8125, appear on the county's own Building Permit Application Instructions form (building-permit-012225.pdf).
- Website
- Official site
Inspection guide
See how inspections work in Unincorporated Tooele 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. Tooele County's own Building Permits page still lists the 2021 IBC (no appendices specified) — live-checked 2026-07-16, the county's own page has not been updated to the current statewide edition.
- 2021 International Residential Code (IRC), including Appendix AQ — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(b)/(c); this edition is UNCHANGED from the prior code cycle. Tooele County's own Building Permits page lists the 2021 IRC — live-checked 2026-07-16, consistent with the current statute on the base edition.
- 2024 International Mechanical Code (IMC) — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(e). Tooele County's own Building Permits page still lists the 2021 IMC — live-checked 2026-07-16, lags the current statewide edition.
- 2024 International Plumbing Code (IPC) — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(d). Tooele County's own Building Permits page still lists the 2021 IPC — live-checked 2026-07-16, lags the current statewide edition.
- 2024 International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC) — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(f). Tooele County's own Building Permits page still lists the 2021 IFGC — live-checked 2026-07-16, lags the current statewide edition.
- 2024 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) — one code, no residential/commercial split, per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(h). Tooele County's own Building Permits page still lists the 2021 IECC — live-checked 2026-07-16, lags the current statewide edition.
- 2021 International Fire Code (IFC) — per Tooele County's own Building Permits page, live-checked 2026-07-16 and unchanged. Utah Code §15A-2-103 does NOT adopt the IFC (fire codes are addressed separately under Title 15A, Chapter 5, the State Fire Code Act) — this edition is left as the county's own published figure rather than reconciled to §15A-2-103, since that statute does not govern it. NOTE: Tooele County's own list includes the IFC explicitly (cited directly in its Fire Protection Criteria for Unincorporated Tooele County, referencing IFC 503.1.1 and Appendix D); Tooele City's own sheet does not list a standalone IFC edition. This is a genuine difference between the two jurisdictions' own published code lists, reported as each jurisdiction states it.
- 2023 National Electrical Code (NEC) — governs per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(g); this edition is UNCHANGED from the prior code cycle, and Tooele County's own Building Permits page already correctly lists the 2023 NEC — live-checked 2026-07-16, no lag on this edition.
- 2024 International Existing Building Code (IEBC) — governs statewide per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(i). Tooele County's own Building Permits page does NOT list the IEBC at all — live-checked 2026-07-16; added here per the statute, not omitted from this file.
- Residential provisions of the 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code (ISPSC) — governs statewide per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(n). Tooele County's own Building Permits page does NOT list the ISPSC at all — live-checked 2026-07-16; added here per the statute, not omitted from this file.
- Modular Building Institute (MBI) Standards 1200 and 1205 — governs statewide per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(o). Not listed on Tooele County's own Building Permits page — live-checked 2026-07-16.
- Utah State Amendments to the Building Codes (Utah Code Title 15A, Chapter 3) — per Tooele County's own Building Permits page, linking directly to le.utah.gov Title 15A Chapter 3.
Permit types & fees
Residential Building Permit
Required for new residential construction, additions, remodels, and any work regulated by the statewide-adopted 2024 IBC / 2021 IRC (per Utah Code §15A-2-103) in unincorporated Tooele County; the county's own application form still cites 2021-cycle editions (live-checked 2026-07-16). The county's own application form covers Building, Electrical, HVAC, Plumbing, Energy, Occupancy, Sign, Construction, and Demolition permits under a single combined application.
Demolition Permit
Required for demolition of any building or structure in unincorporated Tooele County. The county's combined Building Permit Application form explicitly covers 'Construction and Demolition' under a single application; no separate demolition-specific fee or bond line item was found in the county's adopted Fee Schedule.
Commercial Building Permit
Required for new commercial construction in unincorporated Tooele County, regulated by the statewide-adopted 2024 IBC (Utah Code §15A-2-103; the county's own Building Permits page still lists the 2021 IBC as of live re-check 2026-07-16). The Building Permit Fee follows the same Uniform Building Code valuation-based mechanism used for residential construction; commercial development also triggers the county's Transportation Impact Fee at a distinct 'Non-Residential/Commercial' per-square-foot rate.
Commercial Tenant Improvement / Tenant Finish Permit
Required for tenant improvement and remodel work inside an existing commercial building in unincorporated Tooele County. No distinct tenant-improvement fee line was found in the county's adopted Fee Schedule — the same valuation-based Building Permit Fee mechanism (Uniform Building Code provisions) used for new commercial construction applies, scaled to the tenant improvement's own valuation.
Sign Permit
Required for permanent and temporary signage in unincorporated Tooele County. 'Sign Permit' is one of the specific permit types listed on the county's general Building Permit Application and General Instructions form (alongside Building, Electrical, HVAC, Plumbing, Energy, Occupancy, Construction and Demolition). Separate flat fees for permanent and temporary sign permits are published in the county's official Fee Schedule under Planning and Zoning / Community Development.
Fire Sprinkler & Fire Alarm System Permit
Fire sprinkler and fire alarm system permitting in unincorporated Tooele County is handled by whichever fire authority has jurisdiction over the property's location, not by the County's Building Permits office. A large share of unincorporated Tooele County (including Erda, Lake Point, Pine Canyon, and Stansbury Park) sits within the North Tooele Fire District (NTFD), which publishes a detailed, itemized fee schedule covering fire alarm and fire sprinkler system plan review, permits, and inspections separately from the County building permit. Properties outside the NTFD boundary fall under the Tooele County Fire Department directly (Fire Chief/Fire Warden Daniel B. Walton; Fire Marshal Anthony Bott, (435) 833-8125, anthony.bott@tooeleco.org) -- this jurisdiction's own residential/commercial-building-permit entries already document that the County Fire Department requires Site Plan Approval and enforces the county's 'Fire Protection Criteria for Unincorporated Tooele County (Outside of North Tooele Fire District)' for fire-apparatus-access-road compliance. Re-chased 2026-07-20: no distinct, separately published fire sprinkler/alarm PERMIT fee schedule for the County Fire Department itself (outside NTFD) exists -- confirmed by checking the county's current consolidated Fee Schedule (effective 5-19-26) specifically for a fire alarm/sprinkler line item and finding none (only per-dwelling-unit/per-square-foot 'Tooele County Fire' IMPACT fees, a different one-time development fee already documented in this file's building-permit entries). Sprinkler/alarm plan review for properties outside NTFD is therefore folded into the standard valuation-based Tooele County building permit fee, with no separate dollar figure. This entry documents NTFD's separately verified fire sprinkler/alarm permitting process and fees, plus the countywide sprinkler-mandate trigger conditions that apply outside NTFD under Tooele County Code § 6-17-10.
EV Charger / EVSE Permit
Tooele County does not publish a distinct EV charger / EVSE permit type or fee line item. EV charger (EVSE) installation is treated as standard electrical work under the same combined Building Permit Application and General Instructions form used for all other permit types — the county's official adopted Fee Schedule (effective 5-19-26) computes Building Permit fees via the Uniform Building Code valuation mechanism with no separate electrical trade-permit line item and no EV-charger or electric-vehicle-charging line item anywhere in the 21-page document (confirmed by direct text search, re-checked 2026-07-19); the combined Building/Electrical/HVAC/Plumbing application form likewise lists no distinct EV-specific category.
Solar PV / Solar Energy System Permit
Tooele County does not publish a distinct rooftop/on-site solar PV permit type or fee line item. A residential or commercial solar PV installation is treated as standard structural (roof-mount attachment) and electrical (wiring, inverter, interconnection) work under the same combined Building Permit Application and General Instructions form used for all other permit types — the county's official adopted Fee Schedule (effective 5-19-26) computes Building Permit fees via the Uniform Building Code valuation mechanism with no separate solar, solar PV, or photovoltaic line item anywhere in the 21-page document (confirmed by a page-by-page read of the full PDF, 2026-07-21); the combined Building/Electrical/HVAC/Plumbing application form likewise lists no distinct solar-specific category. Large, utility-scale 'Solar Energy Systems' feeding off-site users are instead a land-use/zoning matter under the county's Land Use Ordinance (a required siting buffer from Residential District boundaries), which is a separate process from this building-permit entry and is not addressed here.
Change of Use / Certificate of Occupancy Permit
Unincorporated Tooele County has no standalone Change of Use or Certificate of Occupancy application, checkbox, or fee category distinct from the general Building Permit process. The county's own Building Permits page states that state and county law require a permit for anyone who wants to 'construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish or change the use of any building or structure,' and the combined Building Permit Application and General Instructions form (building-permit-012225.pdf) lists 'Occupancy' among the permit types it covers (Building, Electrical, HVAC, Plumbing, Energy, Occupancy, Sign Permit, Construction and Demolition), but no dedicated occupancy-only checkbox, form, or fee line was found on the form itself, in the county's Applications & Forms index, or in its adopted Fee Schedule. A Certificate of Occupancy is issued following the Final inspection under the standard building-permit process, consistent with the 'Final / Certificate of Occupancy' inspection already documented in this file's residential-building-permit entry.
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)
- 45units
43 buildings · $16.9M valuation
- Trailing 12 months
- 471units
12 of 12 months reported · #22 in Utah coverage by units
- Year to date (2026 YTD through 2026-05)
- 183units
162 buildings · $77.8M valuation
- Full year 2025
- 523units
460 buildings · $191.5M valuation
County-wide figures: BPS reports county-wide totals; this jurisdiction is the unincorporated remainder outside Tooele City and other incorporated municipalities (Grantsville, Stockton, Lake Point, Vernon, Rush Valley, Wendover, Erda) — county totals include those incorporated places.
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
- Tooele County (unincorporated areas, department at tooeleco.gov) is a distinct jurisdiction from Tooele City (tooelecity.gov) — this file covers ONLY unincorporated Tooele County, i.e., areas outside Tooele City and the other incorporated municipalities (Grantsville, Stockton, Lake Point, Vernon, Rush Valley, Wendover, Erda). Verify you are on tooeleco.gov sources, not tooelecity.gov, when researching this jurisdiction.
- Tooele County's own adopted code list includes the 2021 International Fire Code (IFC) explicitly, and the county's Fire Department issues its own 'Fire Protection Criteria for Unincorporated Tooele County (Outside of North Tooele Fire District)' governing fire apparatus access — a requirement not present in Tooele City's own building-codes sheet in this corpus.
- Tooele County's own design criteria differ from Tooele City's: Wind Speed 115 mph (county, IRC projects) vs. 105 mph 3-second gust (city); Ground Snow Load 35 psf (county, IRC) vs. USU Utah Snow Load tool with ASCE 7-16 Chapter 7 (city) — reported exactly as each jurisdiction's own source states, not reconciled or assumed identical.
- Tooele County's own code list does NOT include the International Existing Building Code (IEBC) or International Swimming Pool and Spa Code (ISPSC) as of 2026-07-16 (re-confirmed live) — reported as published, not assumed to match neighboring jurisdictions that do list these. Both codes apply statewide regardless, per Utah Code §15A-2-103(1)(i)/(n), and are added to codesAdopted above sourced to the statute rather than to the county's own (silent) page.
- 2026-07-16 codesAdopted re-verification: Utah Code §15A-2-103 (live-checked at the canonical le.utah.gov URL, current version 'Effective 7/1/2026') now governs statewide construction codes for counties per §15A-1-204, adopting 2024 IBC/IMC/IPC/IFGC/IEBC/IECC and residential 2024 ISPSC, while IRC stays 2021 and NEC stays 2023 — Tooele County's own Building Permits page already correctly lists the 2023 NEC (no lag there), but still lists 2021-cycle IBC/IMC/IPC/IFGC/IECC (live-checked 2026-07-16, unchanged) and does not list IEBC, ISPSC, or MBI Standards 1200/1205 at all. IFC (2021, per the county's own page) is outside §15A-2-103's scope — it falls under Title 15A Chapter 5 — and is left as the county's own published figure. The statute is stated as governing above; the county's page is preserved as history.
- Tooele County bundles multiple impact fees (Parks, Public Safety, Fire, Transportation, plus district-specific fees like North Tooele Fire District or Stansbury Park Service Agency depending on location) directly into the building permit fee under Ordinance 2024-07 (adopted 9/3/2024, effective 12/2/2024) — the department states on its own website it 'does not have authority to waive all or part of these fees.'
- No jurisdiction-published plan-review or permit-issuance turnaround time (business or calendar days) was found for any permit type as of 2026-07-04 — reviewTimelineDays is honestly null with a note rather than estimated, matching the same gap already documented for sibling jurisdiction Tooele City in this corpus.
- Tooele County does not release detailed building-permit issuance information directly to the public on its own website; it directs inquiries to the Utah State Construction Registry (a state-run public database of issued permits, searchable by jurisdiction) — per the county's own Building Inspection page.
- Tooele County Development/Building Inspection contacts as of 2026-07-04: Building Inspection and Code Compliance, 47 South Main Street Room 208, Tooele, UT 84074, (435) 843-4737 (fax (435) 843-3252), building@tooeleco.gov; a separate Building & Zoning Questions line, (435) 843-3160, and Fire Department Questions line, (435) 833-8125 (Fire Marshal Anthony Bott, anthony.bott@tooeleco.org), are published on the county's own Building Permit Application form.
- Rooftop solar PV installations on a home or business require the same Building Permit (structural, via the county's combined application) plus a standard electrical permit for wiring/inverter -- the county's adopted Fee Schedule (effective 5-19-26) contains no 'solar' or 'photovoltaic' line item (confirmed by direct text search of the full 21-page PDF, 2026-07-19), so the general valuation-based Uniform Building Code fee mechanism applies with no distinct solar tier. (Large utility-scale 'Solar Energy Systems' feeding off-site users are a separate Conditional Use in the M-G Manufacturing zone under the county's Land Use Ordinance -- a distinct zoning category from residential/commercial rooftop PV and not addressed by this file.)
- Permits become null and void if work is not commenced within 180 days of issuance, if a progress inspection does not occur within 180 days, or if work is suspended/abandoned for 180+ days after commencement — mirrors the same 180-day rule used by Tooele City, per each jurisdiction's own application form.