City of Grafton, North Dakota - Building Official

City of Grafton, North Dakota

city

5 East 4th Street, P.O. Box 578, Grafton, ND 58237

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Grafton City Hall is at 5 East 4th Street, P.O. Box 578, Grafton, ND 58237, on (701) 352-1561, fax (701) 352-2730. THE BUILDING OFFICIAL FUNCTION IS CONTRACTED OUT, so there are three phone numbers rather than one. The City states: "The City of Grafton has contracted with True Check LLC for building official services." Building Official: Greg Hufnagle, True Check LLC, 11495 260th St NW, Newfolden, MN 56738, (218) 201-2587, [email protected]. Building Inspector: Alec Jalowiec, (218) 280-8126, [email protected]. The Building Official "is responsible for the review of all plans, issuance of permits, and the conduct of all compliance inspections for codes, statutes and ordinances." HOW TO FILE, in the City's own words: "Print and complete appropriate application and forward to the Building Official's office by one of the following ways: Bring to City Hall located at 5 East 4th Street; Mail application to City of Grafton Building Official, P.O. Box 578, Grafton, ND 58237; Fax application to 701-352-2730", and on the Building Permits page, "Email Building Official at [email protected]". WHAT ELSE THE CITY PUBLISHES ALONGSIDE THE APPLICATION: guidance pages on measuring property lines, fence regulations, garage requirements and cleaning mold and mildew, and a 2019 zoning map. THE ONE THING IT DOES NOT PUBLISH is its Code of Ordinances - the City's own page says "Please call City Hall for information on Code of Ordinances" and "Online Code of Ordinances List Coming Soon" - so anything that turns on the wording of an ordinance has to be asked for by telephone.

GRAFTON PUBLISHES NO CODE OF ORDINANCES AND NAMES NO BUILDING CODE EDITION ON ANY REACHABLE PAGE, AND THIS RECORD DOES NOT GUESS ONE. That is a statement about what the City makes available, not about what it enforces. The City's own Code of Ordinances page reads, in its entirety: "Please call City Hall for information on Code of Ordinances at (701) 352-1561. Online Code of Ordinances List Coming Soon." The Building Official pages, which are otherwise detailed, name no edition either; the nearest thing to a code reference on them is "CODES FOR HOMEOWNERS can be found at Carnegie Regional Library." So there is no first-party document naming an adopted edition, and none is stated here. WHAT IS ESTABLISHED. Grafton administers and enforces a building permit regime of its own. The City states: "The Building Official is responsible for the review of all plans, issuance of permits, and the conduct of all compliance inspections for codes, statutes and ordinances. The City of Grafton has contracted with True Check LLC for building official services." Greg Hufnagle is the Building Official and Alec Jalowiec the Building Inspector. Contracting the function out is expressly permitted in North Dakota: NDCC 54-21.3-05 provides that cities, townships and counties "may contract for private enforcement of the state building code." THE STATE FRAMEWORK, AS CONTEXT. NDCC 54-21.3-03(6): "The governing body of a city, township, or county that elects to administer and enforce a building code shall adopt and enforce the state building code. However, the state building code may be amended by cities, townships, and counties to conform to local needs." The 2026 North Dakota State Building Code Book states that "Effective January 1, 2026, the North Dakota State Building Code consists of the 2024 International Building Code (IBC), International Residential Code (IRC), International Mechanical Code (IMC), International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC), International Energy Conservation Code, and the International Existing Building Code as published by the International Code Council (ICC)" and that "NO APPENDICES ARE ADOPTED." Because the chapter also lets a jurisdiction amend the state code to local needs, this record does not infer Grafton's edition or its amendments from the state position. WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT. Ring the Building Official on (218) 201-2587 or the City on (701) 352-1561 and ask two questions before ordering materials: which code and edition your permit will be written to, and whether the City has adopted any local amendments to it.

GRAFTON GIVES A NUMBER, AND IT IS THE MOST USEFUL SENTENCE IN THIS RECORD. The City's Building Permits page and its "Do I Need A Building Permit?" page both list, among the "Examples of when you need to obtain a building permit": "Re-shingling (repair to less than 25% the roof area exempt)". So a re-shingle needs a permit, and a repair confined to less than a quarter of the roof area does not. HOW TO APPLY THE 25 PERCENT. It is expressed as a share of ROOF AREA, not of cost and not of squares ordered, and the exemption is written for a REPAIR rather than for a partial replacement - so measure the area you are touching against the whole roof and, if you are near the line, ring the Building Official before you start rather than after. THE SAME PAGE SETS A DIFFERENT TEST FOR OTHER WORK, WHICH IS WORTH KNOWING BECAUSE IT SHOWS THE 25 PERCENT IS DELIBERATE. The full list on both pages runs: "New Construction"; "Remodeling that involves the removal of walls, construction of new walls or re-construction of 2 or more wall surfaces or other work in excess of $2,000"; "Replacing existing windows with a larger window or installation of egress windows"; "Re-shingling (repair to less than 25% the roof area exempt)"; "Re-siding (repair to less than 25% wall area exempt)"; "Sheds (constructing or moving in)"; "Construction and replacement of decks"; "Construction and replacement of fences"; "Construction or replacement of sidewalks or driveways on the public way (berm)"; and "Placement of manufactured (mobile) homes". Note that remodeling carries a $2,000 money threshold while roofing and siding carry a 25 percent area threshold - the City has chosen a different test for each, so do not apply the dollar figure to a roof. THE LIST IS EXPRESSLY NOT CLOSED. The City introduces it as "Examples of when you need to obtain a building permit are", and closes the page: "Call Building Official at 701-352-1561 for more details on your specific questions." OTHER PERMITS THAT MAY RIDE WITH A JOB. For construction or placement of a new home or business building the City lists that "One or more of the following permits may be required: Building permit; Water-sewer-curb cut/access permit; Floodplain development permit; Manufactured home placement permit; Special use or variance permits." A floodplain development permit is a live question in the Red River valley, so check the parcel before assuming a re-roof is a single-permit job.

8.75% on materials in Grafton - North Dakota state sales and use tax of 5%, plus the City of Grafton's 2.75% local sales, use and gross receipts tax, plus Walsh County's 1% county tax. That is the highest combined rate in this directory's North Dakota group, and it is worth checking against the alternative of buying outside the city. The North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner's Local Taxes by Location Guideline, rates effective 1 July 2026, gives Grafton local code 107 and a current rate of 2.75%, built up from 1% effective 1-1-91, 1% effective 4-1-07, 0.5% effective 4-1-15 and 0.25% effective 10-1-24. The Grafton row is shaded and marked "(Walsh)", and the guideline explains both marks: "Shaded cities also have county tax obligations," and "The county sales, use, and gross receipts tax is in addition to state and city sales, use, and gross receipts tax." THE COUNTY HALF WENT UP RECENTLY, SO CHECK ANY QUOTE WRITTEN BEFORE 2026. Walsh County appears in the county table at local code 502 with a current rate of 1%, built from 0.25% effective 4-1-01 and a further 0.75% effective 1-1-26. A bid priced off the older 0.25% county figure is three-quarters of a point light. THE CITY CAP HAS BEEN REMOVED. Grafton's maximum tax (refund cap) column reads $25 per sale from 1-1-91 and then "None - 4-1-15", and the last dated entry is the one in force, so there is no per-transaction cap on the Grafton city tax. The Walsh County cap is $50 per sale from 1-1-26, up from $25 from 4-1-01. New farm machinery is not subject to the Grafton local tax; permit holder compensation is 3%, capped at $83.33 a month or $250.00 a quarter. WHO PAYS IT ON A ROOF. North Dakota treats a roofing contractor as the final consumer of the materials installed into real property: "A contractor or subcontractor entering into any contract, except for a labor only contract, is regarded as the final user or consumer of all tangible personal property installed into real property." So the contractor pays the tax on its material purchases and does not charge the homeowner sales tax on an install-plus-materials re-roof; selling materials without installing them is a taxable retail sale instead. ONE POINT THAT MATTERS AT THIS RATE. Neither Grafton nor Walsh County is among the sixty local ordinances the guideline names as carrying the limited exemption for "materials that are purchased within the jurisdiction, but later installed outside of the jurisdiction where the sale took place." Without it, where a contractor buys on a certificate of exemption the guideline's default applies: "use tax is due to the local jurisdiction where the materials were purchased regardless of where the materials were installed." So buying in Grafton for a job outside it still carries the full Grafton and Walsh County local tax. Drayton, Northwood and Thompson, all in or near the same corner of the state, ARE on the limited-exemption list.