Short answer: on a $750,000 remodel that adds no floor area, the City of Sammamish’s building permit, plan review, planning review and energy code fees come to $9,750.22. The 15 percent technology fee adds $1,462.53, which makes $11,212.75 on the city’s schedule, and $11,219.25 once the state’s $6.50 fee is added. That is my arithmetic on the city’s schedule, not a city estimate. Trades, trees, fire and utility district charges come on top, depending on your lot.

Piper Cole Architects is based in Kirkland. I design and administer construction, and I do not build. My fixed fee for design and permit, about $10,000 to $200,000 depending on scope, is a separate line from the city’s fees. Every amount below comes from a City of Sammamish document, or state law, that I read on October 19, 2026. The $750,000 value and the trade scope are my assumptions. I found no fee estimator on the city’s fees page, so confirm every amount with the Permit Center before you budget. For setbacks, height and trees see my Sammamish zoning guide, and for how I work here my Sammamish remodel architect page.

Which documents the numbers come from

Sammamish’s code says permit fees follow the schedule in the city’s fee resolution, and plan review is a separate fee on top. These are the documents I used:

The schedule assumes a typical scope of work, and the director may charge time and material beyond it. A 15 percent technology fee is added to each fee on it, except impact fees, stormwater rates, surface water development charges and code violation penalties.

How Sammamish values a remodel

The building fee follows the value of the work, so the valuation rule matters more than any rate. Under SMC 16.20.350, as printed in Ordinance O2024-564, you estimate the value when you apply and the permit center makes the final determination, based on building valuation data from a nationally recognized code organization, with a possible regional modifier. SMC 16.20.025 defines value as the estimated cost to replace the building, or the portion of it, and its equipment in kind, at current material and labor replacement costs, including the contractor’s overhead and profit. The Permit Center FAQ says building and electrical fees rest on the “fair market value of the work.”

For a remodel I start from your builder’s bid, overhead and profit included. I found no page that names the valuation table, the modifier or a rate per square foot, or says how the center tests a low bid, so ask the permit technicians in writing what they accept. SMC 16.20.340 also sets a floor: the permit fee cannot be less than the hourly inspection fee times the expected inspections. At $180 an hour, $5,397.71 covers about 30 hours.

Worked example: a $750,000 remodel

Assumptions: one dwelling unit, no added floor area, a $750,000 value the city accepts, regular plan review. I read the planning line for Additions/Remodels and the energy code line for Residential remodel/addition as the ones a remodel pays. The arithmetic:

Rounding each line before adding the 15 percent gives $1,462.54 instead of $1,462.53, one cent more. The printed bands do not join exactly: $500,000 gives $4,738.51 in its band against the $4,735.21 base of the next. A value of $1,000,000 sits inside the $500,001 to $1,000,000 band, which gives $6,060.21, while the next band’s printed base is $6,061.07. I use $6,060.21. My Sammamish architect page uses the $6,061.07 base for that row, so its $1,000,000 total of about $12,471 is $1.64 higher than the $12,469.85 here. The same method at other values:

For scale, my Redmond, Kirkland and Bellevue pages give $15,984.90, $11,897.56 and $14,919.50 at the same value, each with the state’s $6.50 (this page: $11,219.25).

Electrical, mechanical and plumbing

Each trade is its own permit on the same schedule, with the 15 percent fee added. Electrical follows the value of the electrical work; mechanical and plumbing remodels are priced by item. The schedule lists no plan review percentage for these trades on a remodel, so I add none.

My assumed scope, not a quote: $50,000 of electrical work; one air handler, one heat pump and four exhaust fans, which is 6 mechanical items; 12 plumbing fixtures. Electrical work of $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000 costs $646.24, $1,662.11 and $3,324.08 before the 15 percent fee.

If the city treats mechanical and plumbing items as stand-alone permits at $134 each, six mechanical items cost $924.60 and twelve plumbing fixtures $1,849.20 with the fee, so confirm the counting. Add the state’s $6.50 and the sample comes to $14,059.88.

Charges outside the building permit line

These come from the same schedule. Each applies only if your project triggers it, and most take the 15 percent fee.

Two triggers worth knowing. As printed in the 2024 ordinance, SMC 16.05.130 requires sprinklers in an addition worth 50 percent or more of the King County Assessor’s building value that leaves the building over 5,000 square feet of gross floor area, with a phasing plan of up to five years if the fire official approves. And the city’s remodel checklist says a sewer or water availability certificate from Sammamish Plateau Water or the Northeast Sammamish Water & Sewer District is needed when the project exceeds 50 percent of the property’s assessed value or adds plumbing fixtures. The city states no district charges, so I price none; ask the district.

Impact fees and the affordable housing fee

I found no impact fee that applies to a remodel inside the existing walls that adds no dwelling unit. SMC 21.06.045, adopted by Ordinance O2026-595 and effective July 1, 2026, charges impact fees on development that creates demand for added infrastructure and lists additions to existing residential structures among the exempt activities. The Community Development Director decides whether an activity is exempt. Parks and transportation fees are charged by the square foot of a new housing unit, up to 3,500 square feet, and school fees per dwelling unit. A replacement house pays only for added floor area if a complete building permit application is filed within 12 months of the demolition permit and no dwelling unit is added. My zoning guide has the arithmetic for a new house and the affordable housing fee, and when a remodel counts as a new house covers that line.

When you pay, and review times

The Permit Center FAQ splits fees in two. Submittal fees are paid when you apply and cover plan review. Issuance fees, paid when the permit issues, generally cover inspection and administration. The inspections page adds that you pay a re-inspection fee, which the schedule sets at $180 an hour, if work is incomplete, corrections from the last inspection are not addressed, or you cancel after 8:00 am on the day.

I found no published review time. The FAQ gives staff a goal of finishing within “timeline targets” and no number, and the building division page says staff transitions may reduce service. Extra building reviews cost $182 an hour. On my side, design to permit submission typically takes 2 to 4 months before the city’s clock starts; see my timeline guide.

What I could not confirm

• The number and date of the schedule as posted. The PDF prints neither. Its lines match Attachment A to R2026-1143, passed May 19, 2026. I matched R2025-1121 to the November 18, 2025 consent item by title only.
• Which version governs where they differ. The posted schedule and R2026-1143 charge extra building reviews from the third round, $139 for a tree, $1,053 for a temporary use permit and $370.93 per extra 250 square feet of impervious surface; the November 2025 attachment says after one re-check, $132, $1,080 and $379.81. The later document carries the posted numbers, but R2026-1143 says it amends the impact fee section, so I cannot confirm the council meant to change these. None is in the $750,000 example.
• The current text of SMC 16.20.350. I read the March 2024 ordinance, because the city’s code site blocked my reader.
• The valuation table and how a low bid is tested.
• Rounding of the 15 percent fee, whether a remodel pays the planning and energy lines as I read them, how combo permits count items, and whether the city collects the state’s $6.50.
• When tree, grading and environmental review fees apply to a house remodel.

City fees, my fee and construction cost

A remodel budget has three separate lines. The city line leaves out the extras above.

Ask your builder to state in writing whether permit fees sit inside the bid. The wider budget is in my guide to planning a million dollar remodel.

Questions