City of Jonesboro, Arkansas - Planning and Zoning Department

City of Jonesboro, Arkansas

city

300 S. Church Street, Jonesboro, AR 72401

Required

Required

Jonesboro's Planning and Zoning Department (300 S. Church Street, Jonesboro, AR 72401, 870-932-0406) issues building and re-roofing permits; the Building Inspections Department (same address, 870-933-4602) performs inspections. A permit is required for any work that is not "maintenance or cosmetic," which the city's own FAQ specifically identifies as including roof "redesigning, remodeling, alteration." The current fee schedule prices a residential re-roofing permit at a flat $100 (commercial re-roofing is priced by project cost instead). The city's adopted building code (the state fire prevention code, incorporated by reference under Sec. 105-21) also carries the underlying rule that no work commences before a permit issues: Sec. 105-23(g) requires that "before beginning any work, except grading, within the city, the person responsible for building a structure shall make application for a building permit and shall pay all fees," and imposes "a double fee ... assessed to any person, firm or contractor commencing any work prior to issuance of a building permit."

Jonesboro Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-21 (Chapter 105, Article II - Building Code, within Part II - Land Development Ordinances) adopts, verbatim, "the state fire prevention code, including appendix chapters 'D' (fire districts) and appendix 'E' supplementary accessibility requirements ... by reference, and shall become part of the city building code." Unlike some Arkansas cities, Sec. 105-21 names no fixed edition year of its own - it is a moving reference to whichever edition of the state fire prevention code is currently in force, which is presently the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code (AFPC), 2021 Edition (Volume III governing one- and two-family dwellings, based on the 2021 International Residential Code). The AFPC 2021 is itself a mandatory statewide floor under its own Chapter 1 provision [A] 101.2.2: a jurisdiction "shall only adopt and enforce the provisions of the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, 2021 Edition," which "shall be the only foundation document available for modification by local jurisdictions should they choose to adopt more stringent provisions" - Jonesboro may add stricter local amendments on top of it but may not substitute a different or lesser residential code. Jonesboro Chapter 105, Article II also separately adopts the 2010 ADA Standard Code by reference (Sec. 105-19) and the 2012 Existing Building Code by reference (Sec. 105-20) for accessibility and existing-structure work respectively; neither of those two adoption clauses touches roof-covering content. Arkansas itself amends nothing in the IRC's roofing chapters (Chapter 8, Roof-Ceiling Construction, and Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies) or in Table R301.2(1) at the state level, and Jonesboro's own Article II - read in full, Secs. 105-19 through 105-24, the complete substantive content of the chapter - contains no amendment to any of those provisions either, nor was a Jonesboro-specific design-criteria fill-in found on the city's own site.

Not required — No provision addressing impact resistance, UL 2218, or Class 4 roofing appears anywhere in Jonesboro's own building-code chapter. Chapter 105, Article I (Sec. 105-1, the only section) and Article II (Secs. 105-19 through 105-24, the complete substantive content of the article, every reserved-section range confirmed empty) were both read in full; neither touches roof-covering classification of any kind - Article II is limited to adopting the ADA code, the Existing Building Code, and the state fire prevention code by reference, plus house-demolition, permit-fee, and fire-limit provisions. Arkansas itself amends nothing in the IRC's roofing chapters (8 and 9) at the state level, so state silence combined with Jonesboro's own silence means impact-resistance is simply not addressed by any instrument governing Jonesboro - this is a city-level absence earned by reading the city's own text, not an inference from the state floor alone.

Jonesboro recognizes no dollar-value threshold below which a roof replacement or repair is exempt from a permit. The city's own FAQ states directly, verbatim, in answer to "Do I need a permit for my residence?": "A permit is required on any work on your house or property that is not maintenance or cosmetic. If you are building something new, such as a garage, shed, accessory building, deck with roof, house, or redesigning, remodeling, alteration, as in roof, window/doors, siding you will need a permit." The city's current Planning/Inspections fee schedule confirms roofing has its own dedicated permit category rather than a size- or cost-based exemption, printing the line item "Re-Roofing Permit ... R - $100 C - Project Cost" - a flat $100 fee for a residential re-roofing permit, with commercial re-roofing charged by project cost instead. Jonesboro Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-23(c) independently confirms the underlying permit mandate for any building work: "It shall be unlawful to commence the construction, reconstruction, moving, demolishing or structural alteration of any building until the building inspector has issued a building permit for such work," with no minor-work or dollar-value carve-out anywhere in that section.

Jonesboro's combined sales and use tax rate is 8.500%: the Arkansas state rate of 6.500% (unchanged since July 1, 2013) plus Jonesboro's own city rate of 1.000% (effective 01/01/2015) plus Craighead County's rate of 1.000%, per the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration's current (July-September 2026) quarterly "List of Cities and Counties with Local Sales and Use Tax," which prints the row "Jonesboro 16-11 01/01/15 1.000% Craighead 1.000% 2.000%" (2.000% being the combined city+county local total, before adding the 6.500% state rate). Local rates are reviewed quarterly by the state and should be re-verified against that quarter's current table before reuse.