City of Jasper Department of Community Development & Planning

City of Jasper, Indiana

city

610 Main St, Jasper, IN 47547

WHERE. Community Development & Planning is on the second floor of Jasper City Hall, 610 Main St, P.O. Box 29, Jasper, IN 47547, phone (812) 482-4255, fax (812) 482-7852, open Monday to Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The department covers the city limits and the two-mile jurisdictional area of the Jasper Plan Commission. HOW. Forms are completed, scanned and emailed to [email protected] with any required attachments. The Improvement Location Permit application asks for a site plan showing lot and structure dimensions, setbacks on all four sides, easements, driveway, street names and a north arrow, and the brochure says to stake or flag the area before submitting. TIME AND MONEY. The department "requires seven (7) business days after ALL required forms and drawings have been submitted to review permit applications", and "Work on the project may not begin until the approval has been granted." Permits are valid for six months from issue and the owner has two years to complete the project. Fees are payable when the permit is approved: $200.00 for a single-family or two-family residence, and $50.00 plus $0.05 a square foot for a residential accessory building or addition. Online payment by Visa, Mastercard or Discover carries a 2.49% processing fee. The fee schedule has no roofing line.

JASPER ADOPTS NO BUILDING CODE OF ITS OWN; THE STATE'S RESIDENTIAL CODE APPLIES TO THE HOUSE DIRECTLY. The City's Code of Ordinances, codified through Ordinance No. 2026-11 enacted June 17, 2026, was read in full, all 181 chapters, and it incorporates none of the state building rules by reference: Title 15, Buildings and Construction, holds only Chapter 15.24, Unsafe Buildings, and Chapter 15.30, Mobile Home Restrictions, and Title 675 of the Indiana Administrative Code is cited nowhere in it. The Unified Development Ordinance defines the term and adopts nothing: "Building Code" means the Indiana Building Code as adopted by the Indiana Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission. The codified Building Department chapter dates from Ordinance No. 794 of 1974; the office that now issues permits is Community Development & Planning, whose director the stormwater chapter describes as "(formerly the Building Commissioner)". WHAT APPLIES INSTEAD. The Indiana Department of Homeland Security's guidance memo on ice and water shield and drip edge states: "The 2020 Indiana Residential Code is in full force and effect statewide. Regardless of any established local enforcement policies or practices to the contrary, or whether a local building authority even exists in any particular jurisdiction or location in the state, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code governs all Class 2 residential construction, and its requirements, by law, must be followed." The same memo explains that the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, "adopts, and amends, the first printing of the 2018 International Residential Code", and the current Indiana Administrative Code text of that rule shows its readoption filed November 18, 2025. Nor could Jasper vary it: IC 22-13-2-3(c) provides that "A city, town, or county may not adopt an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the commission's rules."

Required — REQUIRED, BY THE STATE CODE RATHER THAN BY JASPER. The Indiana Department of Homeland Security's memo reproduces the provision the 2020 Indiana Residential Code carries, R905.2.8.5, which opens: "A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs." 675 IAC 14-4.4 amends the flashing section R905.2.8 only by deleting the word "approved" and does not amend R905.2.8.5. Jasper has no drip-edge provision of its own: the Code of Ordinances' six occurrences of "drip" are gas-piping drips, and the Unified Development Ordinance has none. The same memo states that the residential code applies to Class 2 construction whether or not a local building authority exists, so the requirement stands on a Jasper job even where no City permit is issued. Use the full section as the memo reproduces it for laps, extension and fastening. About drip edge

Not required — NOT REQUIRED BY THE TABLE IN DUBOIS COUNTY, AND THE MANUFACTURER'S INSTRUCTIONS CAN STILL REQUIRE IT. The Indiana Residential Code's Table R301.2(1) runs county by county, and its Dubois County row reads Ice Shield Underlayment Required: No. The state memo explains what that No means: "there are specific counties in which it is always required (per Table R301.2(1)), and specific counties in which it is required only when the roofing manufacturer's written installation instructions require it (per Sections R903.1, R904.1 and R905.1)." So where the shingle maker's instructions call for an ice barrier on the assembly being installed, the code requires it on the job. WATCH THE NAME. The same table has a separate row for Jasper County, a different county in northwest Indiana, and that row reads Yes. The City of Jasper is in Dubois County, so the Jasper County row does not apply here. Jasper's own code contains no ice-barrier provision. About ice & water barrier

Not required — NO ROOFING STAGE IN THE CITY'S PUBLISHED PROCESS. Jasper's Permit Process brochure lists the steps for a permitted project, and the only visits in it come before and after the work: "Staff will conduct a site visit to verify application information." and "Staff conducts a post construction site visit to verify project." No roof, dry-in, deck or underlayment inspection appears, and the City's fee schedule carries no inspection or re-inspection fee. For a straight reroof that needs no City permit, there is no visit to schedule. Where a tear-off exposes structural damage, call 812-482-4255 before covering it.

Not required — NOT REQUIRED. Neither Jasper's Code of Ordinances, read in full, nor its Unified Development Ordinance contains any UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 impact requirement; every use of "impact" in the Code concerns stormwater, economic effects or flood debris. The state rule the house is built to, 675 IAC 14-4.4, makes no impact-resistance amendment to the roof assemblies chapter, and IC 22-13-2-3(c) would bar the City from adding one. Impact-rated shingles are an insurance and warranty decision in Jasper, not a code requirement.

THE CITY'S PERMIT IS A LOCATION PERMIT, AND ITS ENACTED TEXT AND ITS OWN PUBLISHED LISTS DRAW THE LINE IN DIFFERENT PLACES, SO BOTH ARE REPORTED HERE RATHER THAN ONE BEING CHOSEN. Jasper issues one permit for construction, the Improvement Location Permit, under section 10.12 of its Unified Development Ordinance. Read broadly, section 10.12(A) catches almost any work: "no structure, improvement, or use of land may be altered, changed, placed, removed, erected, or located on platted or unplatted lands unless the structure, improvement, or use, and its location conform to this ordinance and an Improvement Location Permit for such structure, improvement, or use has been obtained from the Administrator". Section 10.12(B) then says what a permit must be obtained for: "any addition which 1) expands the roof or footprint of a structure; 2) has a permanent foundation (including structures other than buildings such as towers and antennas), 3) changes the use, and 4) any of the actions listed on the Improvement Location Permit application and required supportive information." Section 10.12(C) leaves the rest to the form: "Other types of improvements not requiring an Improvement Location Permit are described in detail within the Improvement Location Permit application and required supportive information." The application offers three types of work, New Structure, Addition and Accessory Structure, with no repair or reroof line, and the City's Permit Process brochure says: "An improvement location permit is required for new construction or a remodel if the footprint of an existing building or structure is expanded." Its list of construction requiring a permit opens with "Any structural project-new or expansion" and does not name roofing. WHERE A ROOF JOB PLAINLY CROSSES THE LINE. Work that raises or extends the roof falls under 10.12(B)(1). And the ordinance's own definition of Structural Alteration says: "The term includes substantial roofing and siding work when repairs are made to the Structure beneath." So a tear-off that turns into rafter or framing repair is structural work on the City's own terms. A like-for-like replacement over sound framing appears on none of the City's lists, and this record does not decide whether 10.12(A) reaches it. THE FLOODPLAIN IS NOT THE TRIGGER. The flood chapter requires a floodplain development permit before development in a special flood hazard area, but section 17.10.050 provides that development "does not include activities such as the maintenance of existing structures and facilities such as painting, re-roofing". A storm-damaged house in the floodplain is a different matter: repairs costing 50 percent or more of its market value are substantial damage under the same section, which is the Floodplain Administrator's determination. Settle a borderline job with Community Development & Planning on 812-482-4255 before the tear-off.

THE FIGURES ARE THE STATE'S DUBOIS COUNTY ROW, NOT A JASPER ENACTMENT. Table R301.2(1) as amended by 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, reproduced at the end of the state's ice and water shield memo and read from the rendered table, gives Dubois County: wind speed 115 mph, seismic design category C, ground snow load 20 psf, foundation (frost line) depth 24 inches, winter design temperature 9 degrees Fahrenheit, decay slight to moderate, termite moderate to heavy, weathering severe, ice shield underlayment required No, air freezing index 1500 or less, and mean annual temperature 53.9 degrees. Jasper publishes no design criteria of its own and could not vary these under IC 22-13-2-3(c). TWO THINGS TO WATCH. Seismic category C is higher than many Indiana counties, where the table prints A or B. And do not read the Jasper County row, which belongs to a different county and prints 30 psf ground snow, 36 inches and ice shield Yes.

NO JASPER RULE AND NO INDIANA AMENDMENT; THE BASE REROOFING SECTION APPLIES UNMODIFIED. Jasper's Code of Ordinances, read in full, and its Unified Development Ordinance contain no recover or tear-off rule; the Code's four uses of the word "layer" concern impervious surfaces, flood insurance and fill, the UDO has none, and the Code's only occurrence of re-roofing is the floodplain exclusion described in this record's permit-threshold field. The state rule adds nothing either. 675 IAC 14-4.4 makes four amendments to the roof assemblies chapter of the 2018 International Residential Code and none touches reroofing: section 84 deletes the last sentence of the rooftop photovoltaic section R902.4, and sections 85, 86 and 87 delete the words "approved" and "printed" from sections R905.2.6, R905.2.8 and R905.2.8.4. It amends nothing in section R908, Reroofing, and IC 22-13-2-3(c) would bar the City from adding a rule of its own. So Section R908 of the 2018 International Residential Code applies as published. Base-code rule, read at 2018 International Residential Code Section R908.3.1.1, Roof recover not allowed: a roof recover "shall not be permitted" where "the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." One existing layer may be recovered; a second existing layer means a tear-off to the deck. Establish the existing layer count before quoting a recover.

NO LOCAL SHEATHING RULE. Neither the Code of Ordinances nor the Unified Development Ordinance contains the word "sheathing", and the Code's four uses of "deck" concern a park pavilion, gas-line obstructions and a flood-elevation definition. The deck side of a Jasper reroof is therefore answered by the 2018 International Residential Code as incorporated by 675 IAC 14-4.4, whose only roof-chapter amendments are the four described in this record's layer field. Sec. 82 of 675 IAC 14-4.4 deletes the words "or certificate of inspection issued by an approved agency" from Section R803.2.1, the section headed identification and grade; otherwise the sheathing provisions apply as incorporated. Where a tear-off exposes rotten decking or framing, remember that the City's own definition counts "substantial roofing and siding work when repairs are made to the Structure beneath" as structural alteration, and call Community Development & Planning on 812-482-4255 before carrying on.

7.00%, the Indiana state sales tax. The Department of Revenue tells businesses they will "need to register to collect a seven percent sales tax"; its sales tax page names no county or city rate to add in Dubois County or Jasper.