City of Rapid City Community Development Department

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 Permitonly if it applies to you	City of Rapid City Community Development Department	Resolution No. 2023-088 states in terms that a sign permit, including electrical and outline lighting signs, is priced from Table 100-C, Commercial Permit Fees — the same valuation table used for commercial building, gas and plumbing permits, running from $37.00 at $1.00–$1,600.00 up to $5,608.75 for the first $1,000,000.00 plus $3.15 per additional $1,000.00 above that (see the Rapid City Commercial Building Permit record for the full table). A temporary sign permit, valid up to twice a year for no longer than 30 days, is priced the same way. Electrical and outline lighting signs are additionally subject to the adopted State Wiring Bulletin.	not stated for a standard sign permit; a temporary sign permit runs for no longer than 30 days and may be used up to twice a year	2026-09-14
Certificate of Occupancy	City of Rapid City Community Development Department	No fee	one-time, issued after final inspection	2026-09-14
Commercial Building Permit	City of Rapid City Community Development Department	Table 100-C, Commercial Permit Fees, prices every commercial building, gas, plumbing and sign permit by total valuation: $37.00 from $1.00 to $1,600.00; $69.25 from $1,601.00 to $2,000.00; $69.25 for the first $2,000.00 plus $14.00 per additional $1,000.00 or fraction thereof, to $25,000.00; $391.25 for the first $25,000.00 plus $10.10 per additional $1,000.00, to $50,000.00; $643.75 for the first $50,000.00 plus $7.00 per additional $1,000.00, to $100,000.00; $993.75 for the first $100,000.00 plus $5.60 per additional $1,000.00, to $500,000.00; $3,233.75 for the first $500,000.00 plus $4.75 per additional $1,000.00, to $1,000,000.00; and $5,608.75 for the first $1,000,000.00 plus $3.15 per additional $1,000.00 or fraction thereof above that. Plan review is 50 percent of the building permit fee for all occupancies except one- and two-family dwellings, which pay 10 percent. Inspections outside normal business hours, re-inspections and inspections for which no fee is specifically listed are each $56.00 per hour (a two-hour minimum for after-hours work, one hour otherwise), and additional plan review required by changes to plans is also $56.00 per hour; outside consultants for plan checking or inspection are billed at actual cost. Commencing work without a permit doubles the permit fee, except for emergency work the Building Official accepts as urgently necessary. A renewed permit is valid for at most 1 year and may be renewed only once without the Building Official’s approval. Air quality permits are published on the same schedule: a compliance plan is $150.00, a construction permit $75.00 for 1 to 5 acres or $100.00 above 5 acres, a permit modification $25.00, a paved parking or storage area permit $75.00 and unpaved $100.00, an amendment $25.00, and an open burn permit no charge.	a renewed permit is valid for not more than 1 year and may be renewed only once without the Building Official’s approval	2026-09-14
Conditional Use Permit and Zoning Applicationsonly if it applies to you	City of Rapid City Community Development Department	From the City’s published Development Application Fee Schedule, most applications are a flat $250.00: conditional use permit; conditional use permit major amendment; annexation or deannexation; comprehensive plan amendment; planned development overlay initial and final; planned development overlay major amendment; planned unit development zoning district zone document; planned unit development major amendment; preliminary subdivision plan; development engineering plans, plus $20.00 per lot; final plat; lot line adjustment or consolidation plat, plus $20.00 per lot; minor plat, plus $20.00 per lot; sidewalk café permit; sidewalk vendor permit, renewing annually at $100.00; vacation of easement; variance; and zoning amendment, whether a rezoning or an ordinance amendment. Cheaper items: a planned development designation is $50.00 and a plat errors-and-omissions correction $50.00. A vacation of right-of-way or of a section line highway is $200.00. Tax increment financing is $2,500.00. Several items carry no charge at all: planned development overlay minor amendment, planned unit development concept plan, planned unit development minor amendment, plat layout plan, H lot plat, and a zoning district administrative exception. The page notes that “Fees are subject to change without notice.”	the permit runs with the approved use unless conditioned otherwise	2026-09-14
Child Care Facility (State licensing; city conditional use permit)only if it applies to you	City of Rapid City Community Development Department	The City charges a $250.00 conditional use permit where the zoning district requires one for a day care use; the Finance Office's license list names no city child care license. State licensing or registration by the South Dakota Department of Social Services is the operative credential, with the format determining which applies: a family day care home, a group family day care home, a day care center and a before-and-after-school program each fall under their own registration or licensing track.	the conditional use permit runs with the approved use; state licenses renew on the Department of Social Services' cycle	2026-09-14
Contractor License	City of Rapid City Community Development Department	RCMC 15.04.140 requires the license and defers the amount to Council resolution; Resolution No. 2023-088, effective January 1, 2024, sets it by class, and the City's own current New Contractor License Application (revised 11-1-22) republishes the identical table dollar for dollar: Class A General Contractor $200.00 new/$100.00 renewal, 3 years; Class B one- and two-family residential $200.00/$100.00, 3 years; Class R Roofing Contractor $200.00/$100.00, 3 years; Class S Siding Contractor $200.00/$100.00 (printed as '$-100.00' in the resolution, evidently a typographical error for $100.00), 3 years; Class EB Class B Electrician $200.00/$100.00, 2 years; Class EC Electrical Contractor $300.00/$200.00, 2 years; Class GA Gas Fitting Apprentice $10.00/$10.00, 3 years; Class GC Gas Fitting Contractor $200.00/$50.00, 3 years; Class GF Gas Fitter $25.00/$25.00, 3 years; Class MA Mechanical Apprentice $25.00/$25.00, 3 years; Class MAS Appliance Specialist $205.00/$80.00, 3 years; Class MC Mechanical Contractor $205.00/$80.00, 3 years; Class MI Mechanical Journeyman/Installer $40.00/$40.00, 3 years; Class P Plumber $200.00/$50.00, 1 year; Class PW Water Softening Contractor $200.00/$50.00, 1 year; and Class SC Sign Contractor $200.00/$50.00, 3 years. The fee for Class EB and Class EC is doubled for performing work without a license. A House Mover license is $200.00 for an initial 1-year license, renewing at $25.00 per truck. A Building Board of Appeals application concerning a building code or amendment requirement is $150.00, with no charge for an appeal regarding the Building Official's action on a contractor's license. The Class A General Contractor exam fee is $115.00; no separate exam fee applies to any other class, whose exams are proctored through City Hall at no charge.	3 years for Class A, B, R, S, SC and the gas/mechanical trade classes; 2 years for Class EB and EC (electrical), expiring December 31 of even years with a 60-day grace period; 1 year for Class P and PW (plumbing), with no grace period; 1 year for a House Mover license	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

Rapid City prices signs from the same valuation table as building permits rather than from a separate schedule. Resolution No. 2023-088 states it directly — a sign permit and a temporary sign permit are both listed under 'Building Permit Fees and Licenses' as billed from 'Table 100-C Commercial Permit Fees (listed below)' — so a sign is priced exactly like a small building project, by its own construction valuation, rather than by a flat per-sign fee. Two checks are worth making before ordering a sign rather than after. The first is the exemption list in the sign ordinance, which covers specified small and temporary signs and can make a modest storefront sign permit-free before valuation even comes into it. The second is location: Rapid City applies additional design standards in the downtown area and along designated corridors, and those standards constrain materials, illumination and placement rather than adding a fee — a sign that meets the size limit can still be refused on design grounds. As with the rest of Table 100-C, the later Resolution No. 2024-106 (effective February 1, 2025) amends only Solid Waste Division landfill tipping fees and does not touch Table 100-C, so the sign permit mechanism above is unchanged by it.

Certificate of Occupancy

No fee for the certificate is published on the City's Building Permits Fee Information page, and §15.04.070 sets none, so none is asserted. The requirement itself is unambiguous and comes straight from the Code: no building may be occupied and no “change in the existing occupancy classification of a building or structure or portion thereof shall be made, until the Building Official has issued a certificate of occupancy therefore.” So a retail unit becoming a restaurant needs a new certificate even if no wall moves. Three further provisions are worth knowing. The Building Official may issue a temporary certificate before the whole permitted work is complete, provided the portion can be occupied safely, and must set a time limit on it. A certificate may be suspended or revoked in writing where it issued in error, on incorrect information, or where the building is found in violation. And issuance “shall not be construed as an approval of a violation” — a certificate is not a defence to one. Because RCMC 8.32.020 sets no city food license, the sequence for a restaurant runs building permit, final inspection, certificate of occupancy, then the state food service establishment license.

Commercial Building Permit

A commercial tenant fit-out is the point at which Rapid City’s otherwise light regulatory touch becomes substantial, and the 50 percent plan review surcharge is the reason: it is five times the rate applied to houses and is the largest single multiplier in the schedule. The contractor doing the work must hold a current Rapid City license before the permit issues, so an unlicensed contractor is a scheduling risk as much as a compliance one, and starting early without the permit doubles the fee rather than merely attracting a penalty. Every figure above comes from Resolution No. 2023-088 (effective January 1, 2024). The table’s shape and every bracket dollar amount are identical to the City's 2016 version of the same table; only the ancillary hourly rate has moved in that time — $47.00 per hour in 2016, $56.00 per hour in the current resolution. Resolution No. 2024-106, effective February 1, 2025, contains only a Public Works Department, Solid Waste Division table raising landfill tipping rates (mixed waste, construction debris, sump grit, asphalt/wood shingles and ash) to a flat $66.00 per ton, and does not touch Table 100-C, contractor licenses or the kennel and pet business licenses. Table 100-C is a Community Development Department schedule; the amendment is a Public Works Department one, and the two do not overlap, so the brackets and rates above remain current through that later resolution.

Conditional Use Permit and Zoning Applications

At $250.00 the conditional use permit is inexpensive relative to what it decides, and for several common small-business uses it is the only city approval carrying real discretion — day care, auto repair and drive-through uses commonly appear as conditional rather than permitted. The schedule’s flatness is its most useful feature: because a variance, a rezoning and a conditional use all cost $250.00, the choice between them turns on which is legally available rather than on price, and getting that choice wrong costs a hearing cycle rather than money. The free items are worth checking before paying for something dearer — a zoning district administrative exception, a planned unit development concept plan and a minor planned development amendment each carry no fee, so the cheapest route to a small dimensional problem may be an administrative exception rather than a variance. The process runs through the Planning Commission with public notice, so the calendar matters more than the fee: a lease signed on the assumption of approval is the main risk.

Child Care Facility (State licensing; city conditional use permit)

Rapid City's role in childcare is a land use role rather than a licensing one, which means the sequence matters: secure the conditional use permit for the site before committing to a lease, because the state license will not cure a zoning refusal. The $250.00 conditional use permit is the city cost. Everything substantive — staff-to-child ratios, background checks, square footage per child, inspection — comes from the Department of Social Services under SDCL ch. 26-6 and ARSD art. 67:42. SDCL 26-6-14 sets the licensed categories by size — a day care center at twenty-one or more children and a group family day care home at thirteen to twenty — and the Finance Office's license list names no childcare registration of the kind Sioux Falls runs, so a small home provider below the state licensing categories deals with the City only through zoning, where the district requires a conditional use permit.

Contractor License

The requirement is local here even though most other trades are not — Rapid City licenses contractors itself, and the license gates the building permit. The municipal license is the substantive general contracting credential in Rapid City; the state layer covers electrical and plumbing through the Department of Labor and Regulation. Every figure above appears identically in two official City documents: Resolution No. 2023-088 (effective January 1, 2024) and the City's contractor license application form. Resolution No. 2024-106, effective February 1, 2025, contains only a Public Works Department, Solid Waste Division table raising landfill tipping rates (mixed waste, construction debris, sump grit, asphalt/wood shingles and ash) to a flat $66.00 per ton, and does not touch Table 100-C, contractor licenses or the kennel and pet business licenses. Its letterhead and signature block read 'RESOLUTION NO. 2024-106,' dated 'this 6th day of January, 2025'; a separate City agenda page labels it '2025-106.' The figures above therefore remain current through that later resolution. Two terms are worth planning around regardless: the two-year electrical cycle expires on a fixed calendar date rather than an anniversary, so a license bought late in an even-numbered year is short-lived, and a general building contractor license dies 10 business days after its designated license holder leaves the firm — a succession risk rather than a fee risk.

Contact

Jurisdiction: Rapid City
Phone: (605) 394-4120
Website: www.rcgov.org/departments/community-planning-development.html

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.