Storey County, Nevada Building Permit Guide

Building permits in Storey County are issued by Storey County Community Development (Building Department) at 110 E. Toll Road in Virginia City. Storey County has 4,462 residents — among the smallest populations of any Nevada county — and it is also the home of the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, a privately developed industrial park of roughly 107,000 acres.

This guide covers the department and how to reach it, the code edition that governs a filing here, what permits cost and who may pull them, and how inspections are booked. Rules that apply everywhere in Nevada are summarized in each section, with a link to the full statewide explanation.

This guide covers work in Storey County, including the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center and the Virginia City historic district.

What requires a building permit in Storey County?

Under the Storey County Code and the county's adopted construction codes, a permit is required before most construction, alteration, demolition, repair, relocation, change of occupancy and trade work begins in the county.

Exemptions are narrow and local, and an exemption from a building permit is not an exemption from zoning, setbacks, floodplain rules, utility approval or a fire authority review. Confirm scope with the department before work starts rather than after.

Which code edition applies

Storey County has adopted the 2024 International Building Code, International Residential Code, International Existing Building Code, International Energy Conservation Code, International Fuel Gas Code, International Mechanical Code, Uniform Mechanical Code, Uniform Plumbing Code and International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, with the 2023 National Electrical Code and the 2024 Northern Nevada Amendments, which became mandatory on 1 January 2026. On the fire side it has adopted the 2024 International Fire Code and the 2024 International Wildland-Urban Interface Code, except the Section 602 residential fire sprinkler requirements. Confirm with the department how the change applies to any application submitted under the earlier codes.

Two state authorities sit alongside the local one and are frequently confused with it. The Nevada State Public Works Division permits and inspects work on state-owned land under NAC 341.045, and the Nevada State Fire Marshal adopts fire and related codes by reference under NAC 477.281. Neither replaces the Storey County Building Department permit for ordinary private construction.

Nevada has no statewide building code for private construction: under NRS § 278.580(1) each city and county adopts its own, so the edition in force is a local question, and a handful of rural counties have adopted none. The one technical rule imposed statewide is seismic: NRS § 278.580(6) requires every local code to include the International Building Code’s seismic provisions and standards for investigating seismic hazards, including surface rupture and liquefaction. Where a building official has been appointed, building without a permit is unlawful (NRS § 278.610). Nevada’s codes and the seismic rule

Who handles permitting in Storey County?

Storey County permits the whole county — there are no incorporated cities within it. Plan review, building permits, business licences and inspections are handled by Storey County Community Development (Building Department) (building@storeycounty.org, 775-847-0966). Plans are submitted by email, as PDF files, to plans@storeycounty.org; reviews may take up to 30 business days, and permits are not issued with the contractor listed as “TBD”. The county contains two entirely different environments: the industrial park in the north and east along the Interstate 80 corridor, and the historic Comstock communities of Virginia City and Gold Hill in the mountains to the south.

Access is by USA Parkway, which runs from Interstate 80 through the park and continues south to US 50 in Lyon County. Traffic through the corridor has grown enormously over the past decade as data centre campuses, advanced manufacturing and distribution and fulfilment facilities have come online. For a construction programme, that means access, haul routes and construction traffic management are real planning items rather than formalities.

The other half of the county could not be more different. Virginia City and Gold Hill are the surviving Comstock mining communities, nationally recognised for their historic character, where the building stock is nineteenth-century and the operative questions are preservation, existing-building provisions, structural verification and change of occupancy. One small department covers both worlds, which is worth remembering when you judge review capacity: a data centre package and a Virginia City renovation go to the same office.

Two significant provisions of Nevada law apply only in counties whose population is 100,000 or more — which in practice means Clark County and Washoe County and the cities inside them. NRS § 278.581 (mandatory construction and energy codes) and NRS § 278.577 (mandatory certification and continuing education for building officials, plan reviewers and inspectors) do not reach Storey County. Where a smaller county provides for inspection and code enforcement, NRS § 278.577(4) instead requires it to establish certification and continuing-education requirements by resolution for its full-time staff. The practical consequence is that qualification standards here are set locally rather than prescribed by statute.

Permit types

Residential permits

Residential work in Storey County is concentrated in the Comstock communities and the Highlands, and is dominated by older historic stock and scattered rural parcels. Because the industrial park excludes residential development by agreement, none of the county's housing activity happens there. Historic character, existing-building provisions, private water and onsite sewage, steep terrain and wildland-urban interface conditions are the recurring themes, and seismic investigation standards apply as they do statewide.

Commercial permits

Commercial and industrial work is overwhelmingly the industrial park: data centre campuses, advanced manufacturing, distribution and fulfilment, and the hotel and extended-stay development supporting the workforce. These are very large packages with structural special inspection, extensive deferred submittals, substantial electrical and mechanical infrastructure, fire protection at scale and phased occupancy. The by-right zoning removes the entitlement bottleneck, which puts correspondingly more weight on the completeness and coordination of the building submittal itself.

Some Nevada requirements sit in NRS Chapter 278 rather than in the adopted codes, and several are conditions on issuance: before a permit is issued to place a manufactured home that is not new, for example, the owner must surrender its certificate of title (NRS § 278.02095(4)). A jurisdiction may require sprinklers in a new home under 5,000 square feet of livable space only after an independent cost-benefit analysis and a finding at a public hearing, or a public-hearing determination about firefighter response time (NRS § 278.586). Recent laws require every city and county to allow by-right multifamily or mixed-use housing on commercially zoned land and to offer an expedited process for attainable housing, and, from 1 July 2026, require counties of 100,000 or more people and cities of 60,000 or more to allow accessory dwelling units. Statewide conditions and recent laws in Nevada

Storey County permit costs and fees

Storey County fees are set by the county's adopted schedule and are generally valuation and square-foot driven, with separate plan review, trade and fire components. On very large industrial packages, valuation-based fees scale accordingly and should be budgeted early.

Nevada lets each city and county fix its own schedule of permit fees (NRS § 278.580(2)), revised on its own cycle, so ask Storey County for the schedule in force on your filing date. How Nevada permit fees work

Trade permits and who may pull them

Trade permits are generally separate from the building permit and are issued to the licensed installer. Nevada licenses contractors at state level through the Nevada State Contractors Board under NRS Chapter 624 and NAC Chapter 624; there is no separate local contractor licence, though a local business licence and registration with the department are commonly required before a permit will issue.

Electrical and mechanical scope on data centre and advanced manufacturing projects here reaches a scale rarely seen in a rural county: high-capacity service, substation coordination, standby generation, energy storage, and process cooling at industrial magnitude. Confirm the adopted National Electrical Code edition before the package is developed, and expect deferred submittals and special inspection programmes to carry as much administrative weight as the base building permit.

Every Nevada contractor licence carries a monetary limit, printed on it, on what the licensee may contract for on a single site for a single client (NRS § 624.220), and a bid or contract must fit both that limit and the licence classification. Raising the limit is a written application to the Board, so plan for it before bidding. Contractor licensing in Nevada

How to apply for a Storey County building permit

In Nevada the building official must notify the designer’s state licensing board when plans are substantially incomplete, or when plans for the same project are rejected at least three times (NRS §§ 278.587 and 278.589), so submit a complete, coordinated set the first time. Land-use decisions can be appealed to the board of adjustment and to the governing body, with onward appeal to the district court (NRS §§ 278.310 and 278.3195). Plan sets, completeness and appeals in Nevada

Inspections in Storey County

Typical checkpoints include grading and erosion control, footing and foundation, underground trades, structural and rough framing, rough electrical, plumbing and mechanical, insulation and energy, fire protection acceptance, final trade inspections, final building and occupancy. Large industrial campuses add extensive structural special inspection, deferred submittal coordination and phased or partial occupancy sequencing.

Phased occupancy is the recurring scheduling question on the big campuses: bringing part of a building or part of a site into use while construction continues elsewhere. That requires the life-safety systems serving the occupied portion to be complete, tested and accepted, and it needs planning into the programme from the beginning rather than negotiating at the end.

Do not cover work before the required inspection has been approved. Keep the issued permit, the approved plans, energy documentation, product listings, special-inspection reports and your correction responses available on site.

Storey County permit search and official resources

Permit records and inspection history are held by the issuing authority, which is why establishing jurisdiction matters for research as well as for filing: a search of the wrong authority’s records returns nothing and proves nothing. If you are buying, refinancing or taking on an existing building, ask Storey County Building Department what it holds for the parcel and whether any permit was left without a final inspection. An open or expired permit on a property is one of the most common and least expected obstacles at closing, and it surfaces long after the work was done.

Two statutory transparency provisions help here. NRS § 278.02329 requires the governing body to publish its list of land-use applications on its website and to update that list monthly, and NRS § 278.02327 governs how an application is checked for completeness before it is accepted at all. Between them they mean the front of the process is more visible than most applicants realise — and that an application returned as incomplete has a defined route back in rather than an informal one.

These are the primary sources behind this guide. Codes, fee schedules and portal procedures change, and in Nevada a jurisdiction’s own published packet can lag an adoption by months — the adopted ordinance governs, not an un-updated handout. Confirm the position for your filing date.

• Storey County government
• Storey County Tahoe Reno Industrial Center information
• Nevada Building Officials — current adopted codes by jurisdiction
• Nevada State Contractors Board — licence requirements
• Nevada contractor licence search
• NRS Chapter 278 — Planning and Zoning
• Nevada State Fire Marshal — building codes
• Governor's Certified Population Estimates (NV Dept of Taxation)

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a special use permit for an industrial project in the park?

Most industrial uses are permitted outright under the county’s heavy industrial zoning, and a limited set of uses requires a special use permit — confirm your specific use with the county. A county building permit is not the only approval: commercial and industrial submittals also need TRI architectural (TRI ARCH) approval and a special inspections packet, and the county’s review covers Building, Planning, the Storey County Fire Protection District where applicable and the Tahoe Reno Industrial General Improvement District (TRI GID) where applicable.

Can I build housing inside the industrial park?

No. The park's development agreement with the county stipulates that there is no residential housing inside its boundaries. Workforce accommodation is provided as hotel and extended-stay development instead.

Which code edition does Storey County enforce?

The 2024 editions of the International and Uniform codes, with the 2023 National Electrical Code, the 2024 International Fire Code and the 2024 Northern Nevada Amendments, which became mandatory on 1 January 2026. Confirm with the department how the change applies to any application submitted earlier.

How does a code change affect a multi-year campus?

Ask the county directly and get the answer in writing. Elsewhere in Nevada the governing edition has been tied to the date each application is received, which would split a phased programme across editions.

What applies in Virginia City?

Virginia City and Gold Hill are historic Comstock communities with nineteenth-century building stock, where preservation considerations, existing-building provisions, structural verification and change of occupancy dominate. The same county department handles both these and the industrial park.

Is utility capacity a constraint in the park?

Water and sewer in the park are run by the Tahoe Reno Industrial General Improvement District (TRI GID), which also reviews plans where it applies. Confirm capacity for your specific load with TRI GID and the power provider.

Simplify Storey County permitting with Alliance Permitting

Storey County pairs a small population with a very large industrial park. By-right industrial zoning removes the entitlement bottleneck that governs schedules elsewhere, which puts the weight on the completeness and coordination of the building submittal and the park’s own approvals, in a department that is also reviewing nineteenth-century renovations in Virginia City.

Trusted by leading builders, developers, and national contractors — 21+ years of filing in the jurisdictions we write about.

Contractors and builders choose Alliance for Storey County because the work is done by people who have stood at the counter:

• We confirm that the specific industrial use is permitted outright before programming.
• We get the code transition rule for phased campuses in writing at the outset.
• We plan special inspection and deferred submittal programmes from day one.
• We sequence phased and partial occupancy against life-safety acceptance.
• We treat historic Comstock work as the separate discipline it is.

Alliance Permitting is a permit documentation and submission company in Nevada. We prepare your paperwork, file it correctly and coordinate with the building department through issuance. We are not a contractor and we do not perform licensed plan review or inspections; that work stays with your licensed team and the jurisdiction.

This guide is provided by Alliance Permitting for general information about Storey County permitting. Requirements, fees, and procedures change; confirm details with the permitting authority before relying on them.