City of Jamestown, North Dakota - Building Department

City of Jamestown, North Dakota

city

Jamestown, ND

Required

Building permits are issued by the City of Jamestown Building Department at City Hall, 102 3rd Avenue SE, on the City's "Application for Residential/Commercial Construction," which is downloadable from the Building page and carries work types for NEW CONSTRUCTION, REPAIR, REMODEL and ADDITION and asks for the roofing type. The form asks the general contractor for both an ND LICENSE number and a CITY LICENSE number with their expiration dates, so a roofer should have both in hand before applying. The Inspections Department states that it requires and provides permits and inspections for any work in the city and within the one-mile extraterritorial limits, and that the City has no electrical, plumbing or mechanical inspector - those permits and inspections are handled by the North Dakota State Electrical and Plumbing Boards. Under Code of the City of Jamestown Section 9-16 a surety bond of $1,000.00, or a greater amount set by the city council, must be on file before any permit issues under the building code. Two local rules that catch people out. Section 9-14.1 requires a registered land surveyor's survey and corner stakes before a permit for NEW construction is issued. And Section 9-9 establishes downtown fire limits, inside which a wooden building may not be erected, placed or repaired without permission granted by the board of appeals and the city council on reports from the building inspector and the fire chief - a step that applies to work on a wood-frame building in that area and has no equivalent elsewhere in the city. The Building Inspector is Thomas Blackmore, reachable on 701-252-5900.

Jamestown is an electing jurisdiction under North Dakota law and runs its own Building Department. North Dakota imposes no building code on every municipality: NDCC 54-21.3-03(6) provides that 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," and adds that "the state building code may be amended by cities, townships, and counties to conform to local needs" - so state text alone does not settle a Jamestown question. Jamestown's operative adoption is Ordinance No. 1618, which amended and re-enacted Sections 9-12, 9-13 and 23-38 of the Code of the City of Jamestown and passed its second reading and final passage on January 5, 2026 (first reading December 1, 2025), by a roll call of 5 ayes, 0 nays, signed by the Mayor and attested by the City Administrator. Section 9-12(a) as re-enacted adopts "the International Building Code, International Residential Code and the International Energy Conservation Code, recommended by the International Code Council (ICC), being particularly the 2024 editions thereof"; Section 23-38 adopts the 2024 International Mechanical Code and 2024 International Fuel Gas Code; and Section 9-13(a) amends those codes "to include the North Dakota State Building Code Amendments to the International Building Code, International Residential Code, International Mechanical Code, International Fuel Gas Code, and the International Energy Conservation Code, 2024 editions." So a Jamestown house is on the 2024 International Residential Code as modified by the North Dakota state amendments to that edition. One practical trap for anyone checking this online: the City's codified Code of Ordinances on Municode is current only through Ordinance No. 1616, enacted October 6, 2025, so the codified text of Sections 9-12 and 9-13 still prints the 2021 editions. The 2024 adoption is later law and is published by the City as a separate ordinance PDF on its Building page. Jamestown also still keeps a long-standing local adoption of the All-Weather Wood Foundation System Manual (June 1976 revision) alongside the I-Codes.

Required — Required by the adopted base code, not by a Jamestown-specific rule. The city adopts the 2024 International Residential Code by Ordinance No. 1618 (Section 9-12 as re-enacted, final passage January 5, 2026), with the North Dakota State Building Code Amendments to the 2024 editions. The City's own amendment section, Code of the City of Jamestown Section 9-13 (read in full), amends only the All-Weather Wood Foundation System Manual, and the North Dakota amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code (read in full) do not touch Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies). The base 2024 International Residential Code drip-edge provision in Chapter 9 therefore applies in Jamestown unmodified - neither relaxed nor added to by the city or the state. About drip edge

Not required — No Jamestown ordinance and no North Dakota state amendment establishes a mid-roof, roof-deck or in-progress roof inspection stage. Chapter 9 of the Code of the City of Jamestown (read in full across all nine of its articles, Sections 9-1 through 9-114) sets no inspection schedule of its own - Section 9-4 simply provides that "Inspections required under the provisions of the building code adopted by section 9-12 shall be made by the building official or his duly appointed assistant," and allows the building official to accept certified written reports from recognised inspection services. The North Dakota State Building Code Amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code (read in full) amend nothing in the code's inspection provisions and nothing in Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies). What follows in practice is that the number and timing of inspections on a Jamestown permit are set by the building official for the job: the Inspections Department states that "The number of inspections depends on the complexity of the job," and the examples it publishes are footing and framing for a deck, and foundation, back-fill, framing, insulation, wall and ceiling, and final for a room addition. Confirm the inspection sequence with the Building Inspector when the permit is issued rather than assuming a roof job carries none.

Not required — No impact-resistance mandate applies in Jamestown. Ordinance No. 1618, the city's operative building code adoption, adopts the 2024 International Building, Residential and Energy Conservation Codes and amends them only to include the North Dakota State Building Code Amendments; it imposes no roofing requirement of its own. The city's codified amendment section, Code of the City of Jamestown Section 9-13, amends only the All-Weather Wood Foundation System Manual. The North Dakota State Building Code Amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code do not amend Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), and no UL 2218, Class 4 or FM 4473 impact-rating requirement appears anywhere in the city's adopted code, in its amendments, or in the state amendments those adopt. An insurance company may still offer a premium credit for impact-rated shingles in Jamestown, but that is a policy term and not a code requirement.

NO DOLLAR OR SQUARE-FOOT FLOOR - Jamestown's permit requirement is written by the kind of work, not by its size. Code of the City of Jamestown Section 9-15(a) provides that "No person, firm, or corporation shall erect, construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, improve, remove, convert or demolish any building or structure in the city, or cause the same to be done, without first obtaining a separate building permit for each such building or structure from the city building inspector," and Article II of Chapter 9 (read in full, Sections 9-11 through 9-16) states no exemption from that requirement for any class or value of work. The City's own Application for Residential/Commercial Construction carries a "REPAIR" work type alongside "REMODEL" and "NEW CONSTRUCTION" and asks the applicant to state the ROOFING TYPE (asphalt shingles, metal, or other), so roof-covering work is captured on the permit application the City publishes. Three related figures a roofer should not confuse with a permit threshold. (1) The $2,500 figure in Section 9-14.5 is a PLAN-SUBMISSION exemption, not a permit exemption: that section is headed "Building plan approval," and its subsection (c)(5) removes the detailed floor plan and structural-design submittal for "Remodeling projects in private residences which do not exceed two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500.00) in total costs or do not involve sleeping rooms of the residence" - the permit itself is still required. (2) Under Section 9-15(b), starting work before the permit is issued adds ten percent to the calculated fee. (3) Under Section 9-16 no permit issues under the building code until the applicant files a surety bond of $1,000.00, or a greater amount set by the city council, conditioned on compliance with the permit and the building code. On fees, the City's Building Permit Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 sets a minimum building permit fee of $50.00 for work valued at $1.00 to $1,000.00, with a 20 percent plan review fee added to commercial building permits only. One point of North Dakota law worth knowing before assuming a re-roof is exempt anywhere in the state: the 2026 North Dakota State Building Code Book, effective January 1, 2026, revises the permit exemption list in Chapter 1 of the INTERNATIONAL BUILDING CODE to include an item reading "14. Reroofing," but the separate amendment to Section 105.2 of the INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTIAL CODE - the code that governs one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses - adds only fences over 8.5 feet, swimming pools, and small detached decks. No reroofing exemption appears on the residential side.

Jamestown adopts the 2024 International Residential Code by Ordinance No. 1618 (Section 9-12 as re-enacted, final passage January 5, 2026), together with the North Dakota State Building Code Amendments to the 2024 editions. Neither layer of local law touches the reroofing rules. The City's own amendment section, Code of the City of Jamestown Section 9-13 (read in full), amends nothing in the I-Codes at all: its subsection (a) simply pulls in the North Dakota state amendments, and its remaining subsections amend only the All-Weather Wood Foundation System Manual. The state amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code (read in full, Chapter 1 through Chapter 21 as published in the 2026 North Dakota State Building Code Book) reach Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11 and 21 only, and contain no amendment to Chapter 8 (Roof-Ceiling Construction) or Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies). The base 2024 International Residential Code therefore governs how many existing layers of roof covering may remain before a tear-off is required. That base rule sits in Section R908.4 (Roof recover): a roof recover is not permitted where the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering, nor where the existing roof or roof covering is water soaked or has deteriorated, nor where the existing covering is slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile. One existing layer may be recovered; a second existing layer forces a tear-off to the deck.

Governed by the unamended base code. Jamestown adopts the 2024 International Residential Code by Ordinance No. 1618 (Section 9-12 as re-enacted, final passage January 5, 2026) together with the North Dakota State Building Code Amendments to the 2024 editions. The City's own amendment section, Code of the City of Jamestown Section 9-13 (read in full), amends only the All-Weather Wood Foundation System Manual and makes no change to any I-Code provision. The North Dakota amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code (read in full in the 2026 North Dakota State Building Code Book) amend sections in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11 and 21 and contain no amendment to Chapter 8 (Roof-Ceiling Construction), which carries the code's roof sheathing and decking provisions. The base 2024 International Residential Code roof sheathing requirements therefore apply in Jamestown without local or state modification. Note separately that Jamestown keeps its own long-standing amendments to the All-Weather Wood Foundation System Manual, so a wood-foundation job in the city does carry local rules even though roof sheathing does not.