Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department (MABCD)
- Phone
- (316) 660-9050
- Hours
- Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. CT
Kansas
Wichita, KS permit fees and requirements
Wichita permits are issued by MABCD
the joint city/county building department, out of three fee tables carried into code by the Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code. New houses pay per square foot — $0.38 finished, $0.30 unfinished; everything else climbs an eight-band valuation ladder from $40 to $18,328 base with every excess rounded up to the band's own increment ('or fraction thereof'). Plan review adds 60% of the building permit fee. Both trades are item price lists — each row a count times a price — plus a $25.00 permit issuance fee per trade permit.
Permit costs we have worked out
Each page shows the fee components, the formula the jurisdiction uses, and a worked example you can follow by hand.
Estimate your potential Wichita permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Wichita building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-26 |
| Wichita electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-26 |
| Wichita plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-26 |
Local context
What is specific to Wichita
MABCD — the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department — is one of the oldest joint building departments in the country: the City of Wichita and Sedgwick County run it together under the Unified Building and Trade Code, and smaller contracted cities ride it too. It is self-supported by its fees, and its Table B carries the history in writing: the ladder's amounts reflect the agreement between the City and the Wichita Area Builders Association, and the Director can cut fees temporarily by up to 20% without returning to either governing body.
The residential new-build rate is the simplest big-city schedule in this dataset: two numbers per square foot, finished and unfinished, nothing else. The Permits page names what 'unfinished' means locally — unfinished basements, attached garages, covered porches and decks — so a 2,000 sq ft two-story with an 800 sq ft basement pays 2,000 × $0.38 plus 800 × $0.30.
Everything else — commercial new build and, by the table's own §3, every remodel or rebuild of either class — walks the §2 ladder: $40 to $1,000, then bands whose bases chain exactly ($70, $488, $1,028, $3,828, $6,328, $18,328) with 'or fraction thereof' round-ups on each band's own increment. Plan review is a code section, not a table row: UBTC §109.5.1 adds 60% of the building permit fee, and MABCD sequences commercial work through a plan-review application first.
The trades price like parts lists. Table I (electrical) and Table H (plumbing) are grids of items — circuits $2.00, outlets $0.75, fixtures $0.75, meters $11.00; waste openings $4.50, water heaters $9.00, backflow devices $5.00 — and each permit adds its $25.00 issuance fee. Both tables carry the same bundling note: a one- or two-family dwelling's trade work is inside the building permit.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
Three bases across MABCD's tables. Residential new build reads area — finished square footage at 38¢ and unfinished at 30¢, two separate measurements. The §2 ladder reads total valuation — for remodels and rebuilds of both classes by its own §3 — in bands whose excess rounds up to the band's own increment ($100 steps at the bottom, $1,000 steps above). The trade tables read counts — each row is the number of items of one kind times its price, plus the $25.00 issuance fee.
Who to contact
The office that issues the permit, with the details we have verified. Confirm current hours before travelling.
What these fees do not include
The list is not a disclaimer: on a new house the fees left out can outweigh the permit fee several times over. Every entry here is stated on the permit page as well.
Not included in our estimates
These figures are MABCD's own permit amounts. They are not a project cost, and they exclude:
- Mechanical permits (Table K) — the same item-list shape, recorded in the research file without its own page.
- Unmodelled trade rows — electrical heating appliances, signs, smoke detectors, motors, services over 480 V, construction services, transformers, generators and PV (each $5–$71); plumbing gas loops and openings, reconnects, rainwater drains, mobile-home services, lawn sprinklers, conditioning, standpipes and miscellaneous. Every price is in the research file; the modelled set is the rows that map one-to-one onto engine inputs.
- Accessory-structure rates (25¢/20¢/10¢) and roofing ($0.05/sq ft, $50–$1,500) — recorded, not modelled.
- Event and administrative fees — reinspection ($11 meter reset; $50/$140 schedule rows), after-hours inspections, the $25 Block/ICC application fee, floodplain $50, wastewater $100/$200, contractor licensing (Table A).
- The Director's temporary 20% fee-reduction authority — a standing legal power, not a published schedule.
Official sources for this jurisdiction
The documents these figures are transcribed from. Where a source contradicts itself we keep both readings and say so on the permit page.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CountyPrimary source
Read 2026-09-26. Three one-page PDFs linked from the MABCD Fees page: fee-table-b.pdf (Table B: residential new build at 38¢/30¢ per sq ft finished/unfinished, accessory rates, and the eight-band §2 commercial ladder that also prices remodels of both classes by §3; the bands chain exactly at every seam — $40+10×$3=$70, $70+38×$11=$488, $488+60×$9=$1,028, $1,028+400×$7=$3,828, $3,828+500×$5=$6,328, $6,328+4,000×$3=$18,328); fee-table-i.pdf (Table I electrical item list with the $25.00 permit issuance fee and the one/two-family bundling note); fee-table-h.pdf (Table H plumbing item list, same shape). Table K (mechanical), Tables A/C/F/G/J (licensing, inspections, sprinkler, miscellaneous, elevator) are on the same page and recorded in the research file, not modelled.
- OrdinanceCityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-26. The UBTC amendment text carries §109.5.1 verbatim: 'said plan review fee shall be 60 percent of the building permit fee as shown in Tables B and C … in addition to the building permit fees', with additional plan review for changed plans at Table D's hourly rate. Also carries the refund section (80% cap, 180 days) and the 180-day expiration with reinstatement at half the new-permit fee.