Tamarack County
Articles, guides and notes from the team.
Permits
A resident has a sheet that says seven feet. The ordinance says six. Here is the counter review checklist I work from, the rehearsal every clerk does before the real conversation, and how I check the source before I speak.
Delia Okafor · Permit Desk Clerk, Planning & Building · · 4 min read
College partnership
A memorandum of understanding, a dual-credit permit-technician certificate, a course launched from the college's learning system through LTI 1.3, and learning activity returned to the college's record store as xAPI statements. Here is what each piece does.
Jonas Lindgren · Workforce Programs Coordinator, Tamarack Community College · · 4 min read
Training
With one certification track, Permit Desk Procedures 2026: five lessons, a pre-assessment, a timed final assessment at an 80 percent pass mark, and a credential that is specific to intake version 3. Here is how the track is built and where the procedures it teaches live.
Marcus Hale · Planning & Building Director · · 4 min read
Permits
Version 3 took effect on 1 April 2026 and fixes the order of a permit inquiry: details first, source second, sketch and fee third, accessible formats before any signature, and a log entry another clerk could check.
Delia Okafor · Permit Desk Clerk, Planning & Building · · 4 min read
Accessibility
Read-aloud, large print, audio copies and interpreter arrangements, offered before anyone asks you to read or sign. Here is what the accessible-services procedure provides, what it asks of staff, and what it never asks of you.
Wen Zhao · Accessibility & Digital Services Coordinator · · 4 min read
Records
Notices go up at least 72 hours before a meeting, public comment is 3 minutes per speaker, and you will be asked which agenda item you are addressing. Here is how the procedure works and why a comment is not the same as an adopted ordinance.
Priya Venkataraman · County Clerk · · 4 min read
Records
Permit files are kept for 10 years after the final permit action and ordinary Planning & Building correspondence for 3 years. A pending request or hold stops the clock, and disposal is a logged decision, not a move to another folder.
Priya Venkataraman · County Clerk · · 4 min read
Records
The County Clerk logs it, acknowledges it within 10 business days, explains any copy fee in writing, and reviews exemptions one at a time. Here is each step, and what an acknowledgement does and does not promise.
Priya Venkataraman · County Clerk · · 4 min read
Fees
Partly, and the conditions are written down. A refund request within 30 days of withdrawal, before plan check starts, returns 80 percent of the permit fee. After plan check starts, the case goes to a documented review instead.
Delia Okafor · Permit Desk Clerk, Planning & Building · · 4 min read
Fees
The FY2026 fee schedule lists four figures residents meet most: $85 for a fence, $140 for a deck, $120 for a re-roof and $110 per hour for plan check. The receipt you get for any of them confirms payment, not permission to build.
Delia Okafor · Permit Desk Clerk, Planning & Building · · 4 min read
Permits
On a corner lot the height threshold is only half the question. Section 4.5 of Ordinance 2026-07 requires a 25-foot sight triangle along each street frontage, and a fence inside it needs planning review whatever its height.
Marcus Hale · Planning & Building Director · · 4 min read
Permits
Residents arrive with the 2025 handout because it was true when they picked it up. Here is how the permit desk handles the moment a superseded sheet meets the current ordinance, without blaming anyone.
Delia Okafor · Permit Desk Clerk, Planning & Building · · 4 min read
Permits
Yes. Since March 2026 a residential fence six feet or higher needs a permit under Ordinance 2026-07, section 4.2, and that includes replacing the fence you already have. Here is what the section says, how to measure, and what to bring to the counter.
Marcus Hale · Planning & Building Director · · 4 min read