Roofing in Jamestown, North Dakota

Required

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.

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.