Bismarck

City of Bismarck Community Development Department, Building Inspections

In short

City of Bismarck Community Development Department, Building Inspections issues 3 permits we publish for Bismarck, last verified 2026-09-14. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.

What this agency issues

Permits required, with issuing agency, fee, renewal term and the date each record was last verified against its source
Permit	Issuing agency	Fee	Renews	Last checked
Sign Permit (priced on the building permit valuation table)only if it applies to you	City of Bismarck Community Development Department, Building Inspections	Title 14 §14-03.1-04(5) routes sign permits to the building permit fee table rather than to a flat sign fee, so a sign is priced from its own construction valuation on the same eight-bracket schedule that governs building work — beginning at $40.00 for valuations to $500.00 and rising through the brackets recorded on the Commercial Building Permit record for Bismarck.	one-time per sign; the separate Sign Installer license expires each December 31	2026-09-14
Mechanical Contractor License (city) and General Contractor License (state)	City of Bismarck Community Development Department, Building Inspections	The City licenses mechanical and HVAC contractors only: Class A is $125.00 annually, Class B is $75.00 annually, and the examination fee is $125.00. General contracting is licensed by the North Dakota Secretary of State rather than by the City, priced by job size — Class A for jobs over $500,000 at $450.00, Class B up to $500,000 at $300.00, Class C up to $300,000 at $225.00 and Class D up to $100,000 at $100.00.	annual	2026-09-14
Commercial Building Permit	City of Bismarck Community Development Department, Building Inspections	An eight-bracket valuation table: $40.00 from $0.00 to $500.00; $40.00 for the first $500.00 plus $1.85 for each additional $100.00 to $2,000.00; $67.75 for the first $2,000.00 plus $8.40 per $1,000.00 to $25,000.00; $260.95 for the first $25,000.00 plus $6.10 per $1,000.00 to $50,000.00; $413.45 for the first $50,000.00 plus $4.20 per $1,000.00 to $100,000.00; $623.45 for the first $100,000.00 plus $3.40 per $1,000.00 to $500,000.00; $1,983.45 for the first $500,000.00 plus $2.85 per $1,000.00 to $1,000,000.00; and $3,408.45 for the first $1,000,000.00 plus $2.20 for each additional $1,000.00. A plan review fee of twenty percent of the permit fee is added to all commercial building permits. Plumbing and mechanical work is priced on its own lower table starting at $40.00 up to $2,000.00 of valuation. Electrical permits are a flat $25.00, a home occupation permit $25.00, a temporary use permit $50.00 and a demolition permit $75.00.	one-time, per project; expiration not separately stated in the published schedule	2026-09-14

Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.

About each permit

Sign Permit (priced on the building permit valuation table)

Title 14 §14-03.1-04(5) states that 'All sign permits may be subject to a fee, as established in Section 4-02-05 (Building Permit Fees) of the City Code of Ordinances,' so signs are priced off the building fee table rather than at a flat rate. The separate obligation falls on the installer, not the sign. Community Development issues a Sign Installer license, expiring each December 31, conditioned on liability insurance of $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence. The City’s License Fees page lists that license as “Sign Installer — Annual License Fee — $10.00”. The same page prices the adjacent trade licenses: a mechanical examination is $125.00, and annual mechanical licenses — both legacy and reciprocal — run $125.00 for the master class and $75.00 for the journeyman class. A mobile home park license is $3.00 per space annually. The City accepts cash, cheque or credit card for license fees but notes that “Credit Card payments will not be accepted over the phone for license fees.”

Mechanical Contractor License (city) and General Contractor License (state)

Bismarck licenses one trade and one only. Chapter 4-10 covers mechanical contractors, and the Community Development Department's own page confirms the short list: 'The Community Development Department issues licenses for the following: Mechanical / HVAC Installers; Sign Installers; Mobile Home Parks.' General contractors need the state license instead, and the Secretary of State sets the threshold plainly: 'When the cost, value, or price of a job exceeds $4,000, the person doing the work must be licensed as a contractor in North Dakota (NDCC ch. 43-07).' Electricians are licensed by the North Dakota State Electrical Board, not by the City — Bismarck repealed its own electrician regulations, §4-02-09 being annotated 'Repealed January 23, 2018.'

Commercial Building Permit

The valuation table is read from the City's own published commercial permit fee PDF, whose header records a last revision of January 10, 2018 with the department page giving effect from January 1, 2020 — it remains the current published table. Two figures on that older PDF are stale against the City's 2026 fee column, and the 2026 values are the ones given here: the moving permit, now $50.00 with a $250 or $500 liability requirement and a $500.00 performance bond rather than the PDF's $25.00, and drainfield or percolation permits, now $150.00 per installation rather than the PDF's $75.00 septic and drainfield line. A separate administrative or non-structural permit is $125.00. Certificates of occupancy issue under the adopted building code — §4-02-08 refers to one, providing that a placard 'shall remain posted until the certificate of occupancy has been issued' — but a standalone certificate of occupancy fee is not published in the Community Development fee appendix or in the City's commercial permit fee PDF, so none is asserted.

Contact

Jurisdiction: Bismarck
Phone: (701) 355-1465
Website: www.bismarcknd.gov/111/Building-Inspections

Contact details are taken from the agency’s own site or its published fee schedule. Where we have not verified a phone number we leave it blank rather than guess.

Sources

Every fee and term above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.

Building Inspections — the department's own current page, listing the licenses Community Development issues (mechanical/HVAC installers, sign installers, mobile home parks)City of Bismarck Community Development Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
City of Bismarck Fees and Charges, 2026 — the consolidated schedule carrying the Environmental Health food, mobile food, temporary food, body art and tanning fees, the fire permit and inspection fees, the mechanical contractor license fees and the alcoholic beverage license classesCity of Bismarck · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
Commercial Building Permit Fees — the eight-bracket valuation table and the twenty percent plan review surcharge applied to all commercial building permitsCity of Bismarck Community Development Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
Contractor licensing — the North Dakota Secretary of State's own page setting the $4,000 job threshold under N.D.C.C. ch. 43-07 and the Class A to Class D license feesNorth Dakota Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14

Other offices serving Bismarck

The full permit list for this jurisdiction

Business licenses in Bismarck

Industry permit lists that include this agency

North Dakota jurisdictions

Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.