City of Helena, Montana - Building Division

City of Helena, Montana

city

316 N. Park Avenue, Room 435, Helena, MT 59623

Required

Required

A FLOATING ADOPTION OF THE STATE'S CURRENT EDITION, WHICH THE CITY'S OWN BUILDING DIVISION SAYS IN TERMS IT ENFORCES ON ONE- AND TWO-FAMILY DWELLINGS. Ordinance No. 3301 (first passed August 22, 2022; finally passed September 26, 2022, signed by the Mayor and attested by the Clerk of the Commission) amends City Code 3-2-1 and 3-2-2 to read: "The City of Helena hereby adopts and by this reference incorporates into this title as if set forth in full, except any regulations which are not applicable to local government jurisdictions, the current edition of the International Residential Code ("IRC") as adopted by the State of Montana, together with Appendix Q - Tiny Houses and Appendix S - Strawbale Construction, including amendments, and modifications, as set forth in Title 24, Chapter 301, of the Administrative Rules of Montana, as adopted by the State of Montana, Department of Labor and Industry." That is a floating, not a dated, reference, and it is a general code adoption -- it does not itself contain language making the code "specifically applicable" to residential buildings containing fewer than five dwelling units, which is the standard Montana's own statute and rule set for a local government to bring a house under the state building code at all: MCA 50-60-102(1)(a) excludes "residential buildings containing less than five dwelling units ... unless the local legislative body by ordinance or resolution makes the state building code applicable to these structures," and ARM 24.301.201(1) requires that this be done by ordinance or resolution making the code "specifically applicable to those structures." This record does not resolve whether Ordinance 3301's general language satisfies that standard; that is a legal conclusion outside its scope. Independently of that question, the Building Division's own first-party handout, "Roofing and Re-Roofing Code Requirements" (November 2022), states as a matter of the Division's own practice: "The Building Division of the City of Helena, pursuant to the adoption of the 2021 IRC is the authority having jurisdiction and according to Chapter 8 and 9, will enforce the provisions required for the installation of new roofing materials and the replacement of roofing materials (re-roof) on One- and Two-Family Dwellings." The City's Community Development Department's "Codes & Design Requirements" page independently confirms the current edition in force is the 2021 IRC, 2021 IBC, and companion 2021/2020 codes, effective October 26, 2022. Helena is one of the Building Codes Bureau's 42 certified local building-code jurisdictions (Building, Plumbing, Electrical, Mechanical), so it may lawfully enforce these codes.

Not required — Ordinance No. 3301, the Building Division's "Roofing and Re-Roofing Code Requirements" handout, and the Re-Roofing Application were each read in full, and none names a mid-roof, dry-in, or in-progress roofing inspection stage. The application separates out a structural permit (sheathing replacement or overlay) and an insulation permit as their own permits when triggered, but adds no additional roofing inspection beyond those. The City's own building permit fee and inspection packet, which covers all trades and could contain an inspection schedule, is an image-only scan of roughly 2.6 MB that this record was not able to read, so this negative is bounded to the three documents named here.

NO DOLLAR OR AREA MINIMUM IS STATED; THE CITY'S OWN FORM COVERS BOTH REPAIR AND REPLACEMENT. The Building Division's application is titled "Roofing Repair or Replacement Permit Application" and states no square-footage or dollar threshold below which it does not apply; its companion handout, "Roofing and Re-Roofing Code Requirements" (November 2022), says the Division "will enforce the provisions required for the installation of new roofing materials and the replacement of roofing materials (re-roof) on One- and Two-Family Dwellings" with no stated minimum. Both documents were read in full. One trigger for a SEPARATE building permit is disclosed on the application itself: "Does roof require replacement of or overlay of structural sheathing? ... If yes, a separate building permit is required and a structural analysis of the existing structure by a Montana licensed structural engineer may be required to ensure adequate capacity of the existing roof framing system to support any additional roof sheathing (2021 IBC, Section 1512 & 2021 IRC, Section R908.2)." A second separate permit is triggered if any portion of the roof or attic is uninsulated at tear-off (IECC Section 101.4.3, exception 5). This record does not have a reading of the City's own building-permit fee and inspection packet (an image-only scan of roughly 2.6 MB covering all trades) and cannot rule out a threshold stated only there.

THE CITY POSTS ITS OWN DESIGN-CRITERIA FIGURES, PLAYING THE ROLE IRC TABLE R301.2(1) PLAYS ELSEWHERE, BECAUSE MONTANA'S STATE RULE FILLS IN NO STATEWIDE WIND OR SNOW NUMBER. ARM 24.301.154(5) replaces IRC R301.6, Roof Load, in its entirety and provides that "snow loads shall be determined by the building official" inside a certified jurisdiction like Helena, with a state ASCE 7-22 default and a 30 psf floor applying only "outside of certified city, county, or town jurisdictions." Montana's rules state no wind speed anywhere (the term "wind speed" occurs zero times across all five rules read). Helena's own Community Development Department publishes a "Codes & Design Requirements" page giving: seismic design category "typically D0 or as calculated by International Building Code, Chapter 16 based on site specific soil conditions"; ground/roof snow load "30 lbs psf minimum"; frost depth "42 inches minimum to bottom of footing"; and a wind-load line giving two figures, 106 mph and 75 mph, whose own basis labels did not extract cleanly from the page and are not repeated here as a quotation -- get the wind-speed basis (ultimate design vs. nominal/ASD, and exposure category) confirmed at the Building Division counter before using either figure for a permit application. The page also states ice-and-water-barrier underlayment is required, consistent with the state amendment above.

THE CITY'S OWN HANDOUT DESCRIBES FULL TEAR-OFF AS THE DEFAULT AND POINTS TO, WITHOUT QUOTING, THE OVERLAY CONDITIONS. Helena's Building Division, "Roofing and Re-Roofing Code Requirements" (November 2022), quotes its local paraphrase of Section R908.3, Roof replacements: "Roof replacement shall include the removal of all existing layers of roof coverings and underlayment down to the roof deck. Exception: Where the existing roof assembly includes an ice barrier membrane that is adhered to the roof deck, the existing ice barrier membrane shall be permitted to remain in place and covered with an additional layer of ice barrier membrane in accordance with Section R905." It then states: "The installation of a new roof covering over an existing roof covering shall be permitted where compliance with Section R908.3.1 is followed. Contact Building Division for requirements." The handout does not itself state the numbered conditions of Section R908.3.1, so this record does not quote or guess them. THE EDITION AND THE FLOATING ADOPTION. Ordinance No. 3301 (first passed August 22, 2022; finally passed September 26, 2022), read in full, amends City Code 3-2-1 and 3-2-2 to adopt "the current edition of the International Building Code" and "the current edition of the International Residential Code ... as adopted by the State of Montana, ... as set forth in Title 24, Chapter 301, of the Administrative Rules of Montana" -- a floating reference to whatever the state has currently adopted, not a dated freeze. The state's own rule, ARM 24.301.154 (read in full, 25 subsections), incorporates the 2021 IRC and makes no amendment to Chapter 9's reroofing section (R908 occurs zero times in it; its only Chapter-9-adjacent amendment is the ice-barrier trigger at R905.1.2, subsection (23)). Ordinance 3301 itself creates no local amendment to any adopted code section. This record does not set a classification for two independent reasons: it has not verified the text of Section R908.3.1's numbered conditions at the 2021 edition, and separately, whether that state-amended code reaches a one- or two-family dwelling here at all turns on the same undecided "specifically applicable" question disclosed in adopted_code. It states the local and state instruments' silence rather than inferring a layer count.

NO CITY SHEATHING RULE OF ITS OWN; WHETHER THE STATE'S CONTENT REACHES A HOUSE HERE IS AN UNRESOLVED APPLICABILITY QUESTION, DISCLOSED RATHER THAN DEFAULTED. Montana's state rule, ARM 24.301.154, was read in full and amends nothing in IRC Chapter 8 (zero occurrences of "sheathing" across its 10,864 characters). But under MCA 50-60-102(1)(a) and ARM 24.301.201(1), that state-amended code reaches a one- or two-family dwelling only where the local legislative body has made it "specifically applicable" to those structures, and Helena's Ordinance No. 3301 (read in full) is a general, floating adoption that does not itself use dwelling-specific language -- see adopted_code. This record does not resolve that question and so does not stamp the base 2021 IRC Chapter 8 sheathing provisions as the operative local answer. What IS established independently, from the City's own Re-Roofing Application: "Does roof require replacement of or overlay of structural sheathing? ... If yes, a separate building permit is required and a structural analysis of the existing structure by a Montana licensed structural engineer may be required to ensure adequate capacity of the existing roof framing system to support any additional roof sheathing (2021 IBC, Section 1512 & 2021 IRC, Section R908.2)." So sheathing replacement or overlay is not merely a materials question at the City's counter; it can require a separate permit and a licensed engineer's sign-off, regardless of how the applicability question resolves.

MONTANA HAS NO GENERAL SALES TAX, AND HELENA IS NOT A RESORT-TAX COMMUNITY. The Montana Department of Revenue states plainly: "Montana does not have a general-use sales tax." Montana's local resort tax (MCA 7-6-1503, capped at 3%, statutorily up to 4% since Ch. 425, L. 2025) is limited by statute to ten named resort communities (Red Lodge, Virginia City, West Yellowstone, Whitefish, Big Sky, Cooke City, Craig, Gardiner, St Regis, and Wolf Creek per the Department's own current list) and, even there, reaches only lodging, restaurants and bars, and destination recreation establishments selling "luxuries," a term that by MCA 7-6-1501(3) expressly excludes "hardware supplies and tools." Helena is not on that list, so no local resort tax applies to a Helena reroof in any event. Montana's 1% Contractor's Gross Receipts Tax (MCA 15-50-205(1)) applies only to public contracts exceeding $80,000 (MCA 15-50-101(3)(a), as amended by Senate Bill 253, 2023) and does not reach an ordinary private residential reroof.