Published
Fremont County requires a permit to move dirt — and hardly anyone mentions it
The permit nobody talks about
Every excavation conversation in Island Park starts with the building permit and the driveway permit. Those are real, and this site covers both. But there is a third county permit sitting underneath a great deal of dirt work, and it is almost never mentioned in a bid, a listing, or a conversation with a contractor: the Excavation and Grading permit, issued by the Fremont County Planning & Building Department at 125 N. Bridge St. in St. Anthony.
It is not a formality invented for large developments. The application form asks, in its own words, whether the proposed activity is for dredging, filling, clearing, grading, or excavation — which between them describe most of what a machine does on a cabin lot. The form was revised on 16 March 2026, so this is a live document and not a relic.
What it costs, and how long it takes
The form prints its own fee, which is unusual and helpful. The county's separately adopted fee schedule prices the same permit at the same amount, which is a useful cross-check on a schedule that is otherwise dated 2011.
| Item | What the county states |
|---|---|
| Fee, minor permit | $100, printed on the application form itself |
| Fee, major permit | $295.00 on the adopted fee schedule — a Class II procedure |
| Review time | 7–10 working days, stated on the form |
| Decision deadline, Class I | The Administrator notifies the applicant within 10 business days |
| Appeal window | 10 business days after notice of the decision is issued |
| Where it is filed | Planning & Building Department, 125 N. Bridge St. Suite 1, St. Anthony |
Seven to ten working days is a fortnight in practice. In a season this short that is not a rounding error, and it is the single best reason to file early rather than at the point the machine is booked.
The two questions on the form that decide everything
Most of the application is ordinary: owner, applicant, legal description, parcel number. Section 3 is where it gets interesting, because two of its questions quietly sort a routine hundred-dollar permit from a much longer process.
“Is the proposed activity in the FEMA Designated 100 year floodplain? Floodplain Zone ______ slope 15-30% ______ slope-30% ______”
— Fremont County, Excavation & Grading Application (Minor), Section 3, revised 16 March 2026. Retrieved 19 August 2026
The county is asking two things at once. Is the ground you intend to disturb inside a mapped flood hazard area, and how steep is it? Neither question is idle. The county's Development Code treats both as critical areas with standards of their own, and what you write in those blanks is what routes your file.
Section 3 is short enough to reproduce in full, and it is worth reading before you fill anything in, because each line is doing a job.
| What Section 3 asks | Why the county is asking |
|---|---|
| Is the proposed activity for dredging, filling, clearing, grading, or excavation? | Establishes that the work is within the permit's scope at all |
| Project will be for construction of (i.e. roads, ponds, etc)? | Ponds and roads pull in other agencies; a pond is rarely just earthwork |
| Size of parcel in acres or square feet? | Scale, and the code's density and coverage limits |
| What is the nature of the proposed activity? | The free-text answer the reviewer actually reads |
| Is there a proposed change of occupancy? | Links the earthwork to a change of use, which is a separate permit |
| Is the proposed activity in the FEMA Designated 100 year floodplain? | Routes the file into the Floodplain Overlay standards |
| Floodplain Zone, and slope 15-30% or over 30% | The two critical-area triggers, answered in three blanks |
What has to go in the envelope
Section 4 lists the supporting material, and it is more than a sketch on a napkin. The site plan requirement in particular is written to catch shoreline and stream work, which matters a great deal on this ground.
- A site plan showing the site and the proposed areas of excavation, clearing, grading, dredging or filling, any retaining wall or other means of shoreline stabilisation, and any accessory buildings within stream or lakeshore corridors and special flood hazard areas. The form requires it to be legible and drawn to scale.
- A parcel map, which the form tells you is available from the Assessor's office.
- The warranty deed.
- A detailed letter explaining the activity — in plain terms, what you are actually doing and why.
- Idaho Department of Water Resources permits where required. The form cites Idaho Code 42-111, which entitles the property to one domestic well, and notes that drilling and any pond or wetland creation need their own permits.
- Army Corps of Engineers permits for anything that disturbs or creates wetlands or ponds.
The owner also signs a consent allowing planning and building staff to enter the property for site inspections related to the application. That is worth reading before signing rather than after, particularly where the owner and the applicant are different people — which is exactly the situation when a contractor files on your behalf.
The line between a $100 permit and a $295 one
This is the part that catches people, and it is not printed on the excavation form at all. It lives in the Development Code's administrative procedures.
A minor clearing and grading permit is a Class I application: the Administrator reviews it against the code's performance standards and approves or disapproves it. A major one is a Class II application, and Class II is not a bigger version of the same form. It is a six-stage process.
- A pre-application meeting between the applicant, the site designer and the Administrator.
- An Existing Resources and Site Analysis Plan.
- A site visit.
- A sketch plan.
- A preliminary plan.
- A final plan.
And the county can move you from one to the other. The code allows the Administrator, on finding that an application will have a significant adverse impact on environmental quality, neighbouring land uses, or public facilities and services, to refer a Class I application to the Planning and Zoning Commission — which may then require it to be converted to a Class II application.
So the honest way to describe the hundred-dollar figure is this: it is the price of the permit you hope you need. Steep ground, a mapped floodplain, a stream corridor or a neighbour-facing impact can turn a desk decision into a staged review with a pre-application meeting at the front of it. That is not a reason to avoid the permit. It is a reason to ask the question early, while the design can still move.
Gravel off your own ground is its own case
One related item is worth knowing, because it surprises landowners who reasonably assume that digging on their own property is their own business. In the Rural Base zone the Development Code lists small gravel extraction as a Class I use and gravel extraction as a Class II use. Opening a borrow pit to supply your own build is a land use with a permit type attached, not an incidental part of the earthwork.
If material is coming off your own property rather than out of a commercial pit, that is a question for the county before it is a question for your operator — and it changes what the right material for a driveway actually costs you.
How to use this before you take bids
The practical value of knowing the permit exists is that it becomes a question you can put to every operator who quotes you, and the answers will differ.
- Ask whether the job needs an Excavation and Grading permit, and who is filing it.
- Ask whether the fee and the two-week review sit inside the quoted price or outside it.
- If any part of the work is near water or on a visible slope, ask whether the operator expects a minor or a major permit, and what they have seen the county do on comparable ground.
- Check the answers against how excavation bids are actually built before comparing two numbers that may not cover the same scope.
- Ask who is producing the scaled site plan, since the county will not accept a sketch, and a surveyor's time is a real line item nobody volunteers.
- If a pond, a wetland or a new well is anywhere in the plan, ask which agency the operator expects to deal with and whether that timeline runs alongside the county's fortnight or after it.
An operator who has never heard of the permit is not necessarily a bad operator. But one who knows the form, knows the review takes a fortnight, and knows what pushes a file to Class II is telling you something real about how much county work they have actually done.
Common questions
Do I really need a county permit just to grade my own lot?
If the activity is dredging, filling, clearing, grading or excavation in unincorporated Fremont County, the county has an application form for exactly that, revised in March 2026. Whether your particular job needs one is a question for the Planning and Building Department, but the permit is not hypothetical and it is not only for large developments.
What does the excavation and grading permit cost?
The minor application form prints a fee of $100. The county's adopted fee schedule prices a minor clearing and grading permit at $100.00 and a major one at $295.00. The major version is a Class II procedure, which is a different and much longer process, not simply a larger fee.
How long does the review take?
The form states the review process will require 7 to 10 working days. Separately, the Development Code requires the Administrator to notify a Class I applicant of the decision within 10 business days. In practice that is about a fortnight, so file before the machine is booked rather than after.
Why does the form ask about slope and floodplain?
Because the Development Code treats steep ground and mapped flood hazard areas as critical areas with standards of their own. Your answers to those two questions route the file. The form uses brackets of 15 to 30 percent and over 30 percent, alongside a space for the FEMA floodplain zone.
What do I have to submit with the application?
A site plan drawn to scale showing the areas to be disturbed and any retaining wall or shoreline stabilisation, a parcel map from the Assessor's office, the warranty deed, and a detailed letter explaining the activity. Water Resources permits and Army Corps permits are required where wells, ponds or wetlands are involved.
Can a minor permit turn into a major one?
Yes. The code lets the Administrator refer a Class I application to the Planning and Zoning Commission on finding it will have a significant adverse impact on environmental quality, neighbouring land uses, or public facilities and services. The Commission may then require it to be converted to a Class II application.
What is actually involved in a Class II application?
Six stages: a pre-application meeting, an Existing Resources and Site Analysis Plan, a site visit, a sketch plan, a preliminary plan and a final plan. It is a staged review rather than a single decision, so the calendar implication is far larger than the difference in fee suggests.
Does digging gravel out of my own land count?
It has its own listing. In the Rural Base zone the Development Code makes small gravel extraction a Class I use and gravel extraction a Class II use. Opening a borrow pit to supply your own build is treated as a land use with a permit type, not as incidental earthwork.
Who signs the consent to enter the property?
The owner. The form has the owner consent to allow planning and building staff to enter the property for site inspections related to the application, while the applicant separately certifies that the information is correct. Where a contractor applies on an owner's behalf, the two signatures are doing different jobs.
Where is it filed?
The Fremont County Planning and Building Department, 125 N. Bridge St. Suite 1, St. Anthony, ID 83445. The form prints (208) 624-4643 for the office and (208) 624-1320 for the fax.