Development Services, Community Planning, Development & Innovation (CPDI)
- Phone
- (406) 552-6630
- Hours
- Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. MT
Montana
Missoula, MT permit fees and requirements
Missoula prices construction permits from Council resolutions with attached exhibits.
The FY2026 schedule (Resolution 8887) governs through September 30, 2026: the building permit climbs a project-cost ladder — a $1,000-wide printed grid from $43 to $1,869, then marginal bands of $11.73, $7.82 and $5.87 per $1,000 above $100,000 — with plan review at 30% of the permit fee. Electrical splits residential flats ($361 single-family, $501 duplex, $278 + $58/unit multi-family) from a five-band commercial ladder; plumbing is a $43.00 issuance plus a unit list.
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 Missoula permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Missoula building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-26 |
| Missoula electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-26 |
| Missoula plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-26 |
Local context
What is specific to Missoula
Missoula's fee story on this pass's date is a changeover. Resolution 8887's schedule runs through September 30, 2026; Resolution 8970, adopted August 17 after two advertised hearings, takes over October 1 with roughly 18–19% increases on the electrical, plumbing and mechanical rows — the building ladder's grid itself unchanged — and one structural change: commercial plan review jumps from 30% to 65% of the building permit fee while residential stays at 30%. Every figure quoted here is the FY2026 amount; the successor amounts are modelled as rules that open that day.
The building ladder's most distinctive feature is upstream of the table: the project cost is usually artificial. The City's own packet derives it from 1998-era per-square-foot factors — $46.85 for dwelling area, $10.11 for unfinished basements, $16.99 for garages — rather than accepting the applicant's number, with bid value admitted only on publicly bid projects over $50,000. The ladder then prices that derived number in a fine printed grid, stepping roughly $22–$33 per $1,000 in the middle ranges before the wide marginal bands take over.
The trades follow the flat-plus-list pattern: electrical keys its residential rows on dwelling type and service amperage, and its commercial ladder is one of the few printed schedules whose band bases deliberately do not chain — each row's 'Fee Value shown for the first $X' stands alone, and the gaps are the printed schedule's own arithmetic.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
The building ladder reads project cost — usually the artificial valuation derived from the packet's square-foot factors, with actual bid value allowed on publicly bid projects over $50,000 and remodels always at estimated job cost. Commercial electrical reads project cost rounded to the nearest hundred (all labor and material). Plumbing and residential-electrical rows read counts: fixtures, water heaters, units, medical-gas systems.
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 the City's own permit amounts under the FY2026 schedule. They are not a project cost, and they exclude:
- The October 1, 2026 changes — Resolution 8970's roughly 18–19% trade-row increases (solar $100→$250) and the 65% commercial plan review take effect six days after this data's verification date; this page quotes the FY2026 amounts in force through September 30, and the successors are priced by rules that open October 1.
- Mechanical permits — issuance $43 plus $12–$159 per piece of equipment by BTU/horsepower class, recorded row by row in the research file.
- Demolition, solar and re-roof flats — $356 whole-structure demolition, $100 solar (rising to $250 in October), $281 residential re-roof.
- Administrative and penalty rows — double fee for unpermitted work, stop work $255, skipped inspection $156, reactivation $275, occupancy without a C.O. $500/day, the 5% technology fee and 3% card fee.
- Moving permits and the fire schedule (Resolution 8971) — separate instruments.
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)CityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-26 via reader proxy (5 pp.). Carries the building project-cost ladder (a $1,000-wide row grid from $1 to $100,000, then four wide marginal bands: $1,869 + $11.73 per $1,000 to $500,000; $6,563 + $7.82 to $1,000,000; $10,474 + $5.87 above), plan review at 30% of the building permit fee (§ 15.32.020(A), $62/hour for changes), the electrical residential flats and five-band commercial ladder, the plumbing issuance and unit rows, and the administrative/penalty apparatus (double fee for unpermitted work, stop work $255, reactivation $275, technology fee 5%). Adoption line: 'Passed and adopted Resolution 8887.'
- City websiteCityPrimary source
City of Missoula Building Permit Valuation & Plan Review Packet (V.01.0126)
Read 2026-09-26 via reader proxy (4 pp.). The City's own teaching document for the plan-review arithmetic: 'the plan review fee charged is 30% of the building permit fee.' Seven steps derive an artificial valuation from the 1998 Building Standards per-square-foot data (residential factors: dwelling $46.85, unfinished basement $10.11, attached garage $16.99, carport $11.53, detached garage $16.99, pole building $9.85), convert IBC construction types to the 1997 UBC terms, add sprinkler and air-conditioning multipliers, then apply the ladder and take 30%. Publicly bid projects over $50,000 may use bid value; remodels always use estimated job cost; combined addition/remodel uses the prevailing work.
- OrdinanceCityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-26 via reader proxy (10 pp.); every fee row re-read line by line from the exhibit text on 2026-09-27. The successor instrument, six days after this pass's date: the MEP trade rows rise roughly 18–19% (issuance $43→$51, fixtures and water heaters $16→$19, medical gas $140→$166, gray water $100→$119, commercial electrical bases $84/$167/$667/$1,229→$100/$198/$788/$1,452), the building ladder's grid prints numerically unchanged ($43 … $1,869 with the same three wide-band rates), solar goes $100→$250 and re-roof $281→$332, and the plan review splits — 'b. Residential Plan Review Fee: 30% of the building permit fee (round up to nearest dollar)' unchanged; 'c. Commercial Plan Review Fee: 65% of the building permit fee' raised from the existing 30%. Modelled as FY2027 rules on this source with effectiveFrom 2026-10-01; the FY2026 rules close their window the day before.