Published
Ten business days: the 2025 state law that puts a written clock on your permit application.
What the 2025 legislature actually changed
For as long as anyone in this valley has been pulling permits, the answer to “how long until I hear back?” was whatever the desk said it was. The 2025 Idaho Legislature changed that — not the building codes themselves, but the administration of permits. Idaho Code §39-4117, “Processing building permits — TIMELY REVIEW”, was added as chapter 272, section 1 of the 2025 session laws, and it applies to “a local government that requires building permits.” Around St. Anthony that means both desks this site exists to tell apart: the City of St. Anthony inside the city limits, and Fremont County everywhere outside them.
The section does four distinct things. It forces every permit-issuing local government to publish a document describing its process in detail — on its website, and in physical form if you ask. It puts a written clock on the incomplete-application conversation. It puts the same clock on the completeness determination itself. And it makes extensions a written, explained event rather than a shrug. The clock at the center of it:
“If an application is deemed incomplete, the local government shall, within ten (10) business days of receipt of a residential building permit application and within twenty (20) business days of receipt of a commercial building permit application, provide written notice to the applicant specifying any missing information necessary to proceed.”
— Idaho Code §39-4117(2), added by the 2025 Idaho Legislature, chapter 272, section 1. Retrieved 11 September 2026
Two numbers, one for each kind of work. Ten business days is two working weeks. Twenty is four. And the duty is not to approve anything in that window — it is to tell you, in writing, what is missing, so the conversation starts with a list instead of silence.
The clocks, in one place
The statute runs the same two numbers through both halves of the completeness process. Here is every timeline §39-4117 sets, in the order a permit applicant meets them:
| What §39-4117 requires | Residential | Commercial |
|---|---|---|
| Written notice of what a submitted application is missing | 10 business days from receipt | 20 business days from receipt |
| Review of a submission — or a resubmission after an incomplete finding — for completeness | 10 business days | 20 business days |
| Written determination that the application is complete or is not | No later than the end of that same period | Same |
| Any extension of those timelines | Only by written agreement — and only after the local government first gives written notice explaining that an extension is needed | Same |
Read the extension line twice, because it is the quietest change in the section. A desk cannot simply let a deadline slide: before any agreed extension, the statute requires advance written notice to you explaining that more time is needed. The extension itself has to be in writing too. Silence is no longer a permitted answer to a clock running out.
“Complete” is not “approved”
The determination at the end of the clock has a deliberately narrow meaning, and the statute says so outright: a completeness finding “shall not constitute approval but shall authorize the application to proceed to formal plan review.” Winning the ten-day clock means your file is whole — every document on the list, every signature, every sheet — and the real review of your plans begins on that footing.
How long that real review takes is a different question, and the county answers it in its own paperwork. The Fremont County Pre-Construction Check List tells applicants to plan for “approximately 4 to 6 weeks to review & approve” building plans once a completed application is in — that line re-read from the county’s current checklist on 11 September 2026. So the honest timeline for a county permit runs in two stages: days to be told your packet is whole, then weeks while the plans themselves are reviewed. And this statute’s clocks are not the only ones running — the two other clocks on a permit (how long an application stays alive before the permit is issued, and how long the issued permit itself is valid) live on a different page of this site.
The document nobody knows to ask for
Subsection (1) is the sleeper in this law. Every local government that requires building permits must make available “a document that describes in detail the requirements of its building permit process” — published on its website, and handed over in physical form on request. Around here, where the practical questions are which desk, which form first, and what counts as a finished packet, that document is the closest thing there is to an official answer key:
- Inside St. Anthony: the city’s sequence already puts zoning approval ahead of the building permit; the §39-4117 document is where that sequence, and everything the city says belongs in a complete file, is supposed to be spelled out.
- Outside the city: the county’s own questionnaire — the one mapped in the eleven questions the county asks before it opens your file — is the kind of content a compliant process document has to cover in detail.
- Either desk: the statute’s words give you the ask, verbatim — the document is due to the public on the website and in physical form upon request, so “please give me the §39-4117 process document” is a request with a statute behind it.
None of this hurries the work of reviewing a set of house plans, and it is not meant to. What it changes is the front end: what you are allowed to know in advance, and how quickly you learn where your packet stands.
What the law does not do
Worth saying plainly, because a page like this can create an expectation the statute does not fund:
- No penalty is printed in the section. §39-4117 sets duties and deadlines; it does not fine a desk that misses them, and it never deems a permit approved just because a clock ran out.
- What it gives you is a written record. A notice of exactly what was missing, dated within ten business days — or a completeness determination dated the same way — and the extension rule means every later delay also has to exist in writing. If a review ever goes sideways, that paper trail is where any remedy starts.
- Your half of the bargain is in the statute too. The applicant owes a “good faith effort to submit a complete application.” The clocks protect a complete packet, not a first draft.
Put the clocks on your side of the table
- Before you submit anywhere, ask that desk for its §39-4117 process document — on the website or in hand — and build your packet straight down its list.
- Date-stamp your submission the day you hand it over; every clock in the section runs from receipt.
- Count ten business days on a residential file (twenty on commercial) and expect the missing-items letter within them if anything is short.
- Answer that letter completely, then restart the count — a resubmission gets the same review period as the first filing.
- Ask for the completeness determination in writing when the window closes; that paper is what moves you into formal plan review.
- Accept no extension that is not in writing, and none that was not preceded by a written explanation that more time was needed.
- Keep every notice in one file — they are the timeline of your permit, in the county’s or the city’s own words.
- Then call (208) 656-1745 with the one question your build actually turns on — which desk, which packet, which clock.
Common questions
What is Idaho Code 39-4117?
A statute added by the 2025 Idaho Legislature, chapter 272, titled 'Processing building permits - TIMELY REVIEW.' It requires every local government that issues building permits to publish its process in detail and to handle the completeness of applications on written, fixed business-day timelines.
How quickly must a city or county respond to a building permit application in Idaho?
Under section 39-4117(2), if an application is deemed incomplete, the local government must send written notice of the missing information within ten business days of receiving a residential application, and within twenty business days for a commercial one.
Does the ten-day clock mean my permit is approved in ten days?
No. The statute says a determination that an application is complete 'shall not constitute approval' - it only authorizes the application to proceed to formal plan review. Fremont County's own checklist tells applicants to plan for approximately 4 to 6 weeks to review and approve plans.
Does this law apply both inside St. Anthony and out in the county?
Yes. It binds 'a local government that requires building permits,' which covers both desks around St. Anthony: the city inside its limits and Fremont County outside them.
What counts as a 'complete' application under the new law?
One that makes a good faith effort to include the necessary documentation the local government's published process document specifies. That document - required to be on the website and available in physical form - is the reference the completeness clock runs against.
What happens if the local government misses the deadline?
The statute sets duties, not penalties, and it never deems a permit approved because a clock ran out. What it guarantees is paper: written notices with dates, and written extension requests, which form the record of how the review actually went.
Can the review timeline be extended?
Only by written agreement between the applicant and the local government - and before any such agreement, the local government must give the applicant written notice explaining that an extension is needed.
Where can I read the process document the law requires my permit desk to publish?
Ask the desk that issues your permit: under section 39-4117(1) the document describing the permit process in detail must be provided on the local government's website and in physical form upon request.
When did this take effect, and was it part of a bigger change?
It was added by the 2025 session as chapter 272, section 1. It sits in the Idaho Building Code Act, Title 39, Chapter 41 - the same chapter that governs how building codes are applied across the state.