What a Shed Permit Costs: Sorted by How the Fee Is Actually Set

There is no honest single number for what a shed permit costs. The 137 jurisdictions we track price it in four fundamentally different ways, and a share of our own rows give us no figure to work with at all. We hand-sorted every row by the mechanism its own fee note actually describes, not by a pattern match, so the counts below are exactly what we hold, not rounded or assumed.

How the 137 sort

26 state a single flat dollar figure, or a small number of them tied to a discrete size or type tier. 21 charge a rate multiplied directly by the shed’s own square footage. 55 run a declared or assessed construction value through a dollar-per-thousand (or per-hundred, or percentage) formula: in most cases the same table used for any building permit in that jurisdiction, in Orange County FL an accessory-structure-specific valuation schedule instead. 12 more use a mechanism that never reduces to a single rate: a volume charge, a staff-time deposit, a construction-type lookup table, or a bare minimum under a table never characterized as valuation-based or per-square-foot.

The remaining 23 are mostly our own gap, not a jurisdictional fact. 10 of our rows carry no fee note at all, and 13 more carry a fee note that describes a process, a stale rate, or only an ancillary add-on fee, without ever pricing the shed permit itself. One of the thirteen, New York’s Town of Brookhaven, is the exception: our row for it says why, “No Building Division fee schedule is published.” Why Permit Fees Vary So Much Between Cities walks through the same kind of split (flat versus valuation, plan review billed separately, a trade handed to a different agency entirely) using examples from other permit types; here we stay inside the shed data and name real jurisdictions for each group.

Flat fee: a set dollar amount, though check the tiers

Chandler, Arizona sets a flat $150 residential ramada/accessory storage building permit fee under Fee Schedule Section 4.6.4(m). The same schedule separately prices building plan review at 65 percent of the building permit fee under Section 4.6.2(a); whether that applies on top of the $150 depends on whether the application needs plan review, which the shed fee line itself does not say. The flat number applies whichever limit the shed crosses: the 120 square foot floor area cap, the 7 ft height limit, or a utility connection.

Miami-Dade County, Florida also charges flat fees, split by size. A prefabricated utility shed with a slab, over 100 square feet, carries a flat $147 building permit fee. A prefabricated shed no greater than 100 square feet instead falls under the county’s Residential Hardening Improvement and Repair Type Permit at a flat $130, plus a separate $25 non-refundable fee for permit support functions; that program is explicitly a pilot, reassessed annually. Our row cites the Implementing Order effective June 30, 2025; that order has since been reissued, effective June 26, 2026, with the same $147 and $130 figures.

A flat fee can still carry its own add-ons. Baltimore County adds a $75 application fee on top of its $105/$160 accessory-structure tiers. Buffalo adds a $25 application fee plus, if plans are required, a plan review fee of 20% of the permit fee, on top of its $75 shed line. Sterling Heights adds a $56 application fee to its $78 shed tier. Ask what else attaches to the number you are quoted.

Per square foot: the rate is fixed, the area is not

Fairfax County, Virginia charges by area once a shed passes its 256 square foot exemption, under Table 1’s per-square-foot rates by construction type: $0.28 for Type IA and IB, $0.22 for Type IIA, IIIA and IV, or $0.15 for Type IIB, IIIB, VA and VB, computed over all floors including horizontally projected roof areas. That rate is subject to a $141.75 base fee, described in the schedule as the minimum fee charged for any permit, and the minimum does the work for most sheds. At the $0.15 rate, a 300 square foot shed computes to $45 and a 900 square foot shed to $135, and both still pay the $141.75 minimum rather than the computed amount; a shed would need to clear 945 square feet at that rate before the per-square-foot math actually exceeds the floor. A 2.0 percent Code Academy levy applies on top of whichever number wins.

Valuation: the charge runs through a table keyed to value, not size

Kansas City, Missouri prices a shed that needs a permit through the identical one- and two-family valuation table used for any other residential building permit, under Code of Ordinances Section 18-20(b)(2): $52.00 for total valuation of $0.00 to $1,000.00, $58.00 for $1,001.00 to $2,000.00, then $58.00 plus $4.33 for each additional $1,000.00 up to $100,000.00. Our row for Kansas City, verified 2026-08-16, cites the ordinance directly, since the city’s own fee-schedule page links a calculator rather than reproducing the table.

Other: the ones that do not reduce to a rate

Cook County, Illinois prices sheds and private garages together by volume, not area, under Code of Ordinances Section 32-1, item 2-B: “Minimum Fee 73.50 or $21.00 each for each 1,000 cubic feet of volume, or fractional part computed from the basement to the highest part of the roof including all projections.” Twelve of the 137 rows work this way: a volume charge, a staff-time deposit, a construction-type lookup table, or a bare minimum under a table the row never calls valuation-based, rather than a rate you can apply yourself.

When there is no shed-specific line at all

Of the 114 rows that do give us a figure, many have no shed line at all, and price a shed as a generic accessory structure or general building permit instead. Washington’s Bellevue is explicit about it: “No separate shed line item; a shed needing a permit is a building permit by valuation per Table 4 of Ordinance 6879, $44 inspection fee minimum.” Baltimore County and Hernando County do have a dedicated line, just not a shed line: theirs are named “Accessory Structure” and “Storage Building,” never “shed.” Either way, there is no shed line to search for.

When our own data has no figure at all

Ten of our 137 rows carry no fee note at all, and 13 more carry one that never prices the shed permit itself, including Houston, whose own permitting page names only an administrative fee (“Admin fee: $33.56”) and otherwise says “See City of Houston fee schedule” without quoting it.

San Antonio, Texas is one of the ten with no fee note, but that is not the same as the city publishing nothing. Its FY 2027 Development Fee Schedule, revised September 2026, has a table titled “Residential Construction – Remodels, Additions, and Accessory Structures Less than 1,000 sq. ft Single-Story.” Its 0000-0500 square foot bracket lists a $172.50 Building Permit fee and $752.10 in Total Basic Permit Fees. The same page says projects under 1,000 square feet left unfinished, with exposed studs, no insulation and no sheetrock, will pay a flat fee of $150.00, and the schedule adds a 4% Technological Improvement and a 4% Development Services surcharge to fees unless noted. It never uses the word shed, so ask the office which of those lines your shed falls under.

How to find your own number

Start on your own locality’s page, reachable from the national shed permit page, since the actual fee lives at the locality level, not this guide. Then read what its fee note says about the mechanism before you look at the dollar amount, and call the office to confirm, because schedules change: Miami-Dade’s own fee order has been reissued since our row was recorded, mid-cycle, with the same dollar figures but a new effective date.

If it names a flat fee, check for a size or type split the way Miami-Dade prices a shed with a slab differently from a small prefab unit, and ask what add-on fees attach: an application fee, a support fee, or a plan-review percentage, the way Baltimore County, Buffalo and Sterling Heights each add one.

If it charges per square foot, measure your shed’s actual footprint, including any horizontally projected roof area the schedule counts, and check for a base-fee minimum first, the way Fairfax County’s minimum swallows the fee for any shed under about 945 square feet at its lowest rate.

If it runs a valuation table, call the permit office and ask what value they will assign your shed before you try to read the table yourself; the table only produces a number once you have that figure.

If the mechanism is something else, a volume charge, a deposit, or a construction-type lookup, read the line for your own shed rather than assuming it works like a neighbor’s.

If your locality’s line is named for a category rather than a shed, the way Baltimore County’s “Accessory Structure” and Hernando County’s “Storage Building” lines are, read that line. If there is no separate line at all, as in Bellevue, ask the office how it values a shed under its general building-permit table.

And if our page shows no fee note, as with San Antonio, read the office’s current schedule and ask which line applies.

What a Shed Permit Costs: Sorted by How the Fee Is Actually Set: figures as of 28 Sep 2026, 137 jurisdictions. Now 148.