Shops & accessory structures
Shop house or barndominium? The difference the county cares about is height
Published · every figure below was checked against its primary source on the date shown.
The question is not what it looks like
People use “barndominium” and “shop house” interchangeably, and for conversation that is fine. For a permit file it is not, because the county's rules do not care about the styling. They care about one thing: is this building the dwelling, or is it accessory to a dwelling?
That single classification decides your height cap, and the county states both limits in the same sentence.
“Building Height — As per Fremont County Ordinance buildings are not to exceed 30 feet unless they are accessory structures then they are not allowed to exceed 25 feet.”
— Fremont County, Pre-Construction Check List for Building Permits, rev. 17 April 2026. Retrieved 14 August 2026
Five feet, and why it is not a small number
| Classification | Height cap | What it typically allows |
|---|---|---|
| The dwelling | 30 feet | A tall equipment bay with genuinely usable space above it |
| An accessory structure | 25 feet | Either the tall bay or the upstairs, rarely both without compromise |
If the whole idea is a high door at ground level and a home above it, five feet is the design. Lose it and something gives: the door gets shorter, the upstairs ceiling gets lower, or the roof pitch flattens in a way that changes how the building looks and how snow behaves on it.
| Element | Under a 30-foot cap | Under a 25-foot cap |
|---|---|---|
| Ground-floor door opening | Room for a tall equipment door | Usually the first thing trimmed |
| Upper-floor ceiling | Full-height living space | Compromised, or partly in the roof |
| Roof pitch | Free to follow the design | Flattened to buy back height |
The sequencing trap
Here is how it actually goes wrong, and it is common enough to be worth spelling out.
- Somebody buys ground and needs storage now, so they build a shop. It is accessory to a dwelling that does not exist yet, or accessory in intent. It goes up under the 25-foot cap.
- They live elsewhere for two or three years while the rest comes together.
- The plan matures into “we will just finish the upstairs and live in it.”
- The building they are trying to convert was designed to a cap that was chosen, without much thought, in step one.
Nothing about that is illegal or foolish. It is just a decision made early, cheaply and invisibly, that becomes expensive and visible later. The fix is to raise the question at the design stage even if the living space is years away — and to ask the building department directly how they will classify what you are proposing.
What to ask, and who to ask
- Classification. “Given this site plan and this use, will you treat this building as the dwelling or as an accessory structure?” Ask before the design is fixed.
- Method. Post and beam, or conventionally framed? The county's checklist requires engineered stamped plans for free-standing post and beam structures with no exemption attached, and a large share of shop buildings are exactly that.
- Which desk. Inside the city limits, the city's zoning governs height and the city issues the permit. Outside, it is the county. That is settled by the parcel.
The two numbers to call are City of St. Anthony, 420 N Bridge Street Suite A, St. Anthony, ID 83445 — (208) 624-3494; inspections (208) 709-3030, 24 hours' notice, and Fremont County Building Department, Fremont County Courthouse, 151 W 1st North, St. Anthony, ID 83445 — (208) 624-7200.
A note on what this site will not tell you
You will find pages elsewhere quoting confident St. Anthony setback and height figures. Be careful with them. The city hosts a 104-page zoning title under a filename ending “FINAL” whose every page is footed “Draft,” and whose section numbering does not match the code the city cites on its own permit form. Figures lifted from that document are not reliable, and this site does not reproduce them. For anything inside the city limits, the city office is the source.
Related reading on this site
- Building a barndominium in St. Anthony — the stamped-plans rule that catches most post-frame designs
- St. Anthony issues its own building permits — which set of height rules applies to your parcel
- The city and the county cite different building codes — the other place the two desks diverge on the same house
Common questions
What is the difference between a shop house and a barndominium?
In ordinary use, a barndominium is a single building where the living space and the shop share one structure, and a shop house is a shop building with living quarters in or attached to it. The distinction people actually care about is legal rather than architectural: is this building the dwelling, or is it accessory to one?
Why does that distinction matter in Fremont County?
Height. The county's checklist states buildings are not to exceed 30 feet, and accessory structures are not allowed to exceed 25 feet. Which category your building falls into therefore changes your maximum height by five feet.
Five feet does not sound like much.
It is a great deal when the whole design premise is a tall bay at ground level with living space above it. Five feet is roughly the difference between comfortable headroom over a 14-foot door and a compromise on one of the two floors. It is also very difficult to recover later.
Can I build the shop first and add living space later?
People do it constantly, and it is where the height cap catches them. A shop built as an accessory structure was built under the 25-foot limit. If the plan is eventually to live in it, that decision was effectively made years earlier — so raise it at the design stage even if the living space is far off.
Does the city have the same height rules?
Inside St. Anthony city limits the city's own zoning governs, and this site does not publish figures from it. The copy of the zoning title on the city's website is marked as a draft throughout and its section numbering does not match the code the city cites elsewhere, so the city office is the place to ask.
Does a shop house need engineered plans?
If it is free-standing post and beam, the county's checklist says yes, with no exemption attached. Many shop buildings are exactly that. Settle the construction method before you price anything.
Is there a tax or assessment difference?
That is an assessor question rather than a building department one, and the two offices answer different things. Ask the Fremont County Assessor directly rather than assuming that how the building department classified your structure is how it will be assessed.
Can I have a shop and a house as two separate buildings instead?
Yes, and it sidesteps the classification problem rather than solving it: the house is the dwelling under the 30-foot cap and the shop is accessory under 25. That is often the cleaner answer if you want a genuinely tall shop, because the shop no longer has to carry living space within a height limit designed for something else.
Ask about a build in St. Anthony
Describe the parcel and roughly what you have in mind. What comes back is an honest read on which firms here take that kind of work, plus the one thing most people have not established yet: whether the city or the county will be reviewing your plans. Free, and nothing automated ever follows.
- Say where the ground is and what you intend to put on it.
- You are pointed toward the firms in this town with that work behind them.
- From there it is between you and them. No commission, no introduction fee, and nobody standing between you and your own contract.
One contact method is plenty — whichever you prefer. A human being writes back.