Zoning, building permits and septic rules in Riceville, Iowa

Riceville’s own rules

• Mandatory utility hookupSewer (with conditions)

  Houses, buildings and properties used for human occupancy inside Riceville city that abut a street, alley or right-of-way with a public sanitary or combined sewer. Water connection was not established.

  • Compliance is due within sixty (60) days after the date of official notice from the city (sec. 95.05). The sentence continues with a proviso that was cut off in extraction and is not captured here.
  • A sewer connection permit under the chapter 96 permit text requires the owner to complete construction and connection within sixty (60) days after the permit issues; an extension may be granted for conditions beyond the owner's control or peculiar hardship.
  • Building sewer installations and connections to the public sewer must be made by a state-licensed plumber (sec. 96.03).
  • Chapter 95.04 prohibited-acts text and chapter 95.06 (service outside the city) were not read in full.
  • The code PDF is undated; the city Ordinances page lists 2016 and January 2018 supplements. Whether these provisions are current was not verified.

  sewer connection charge: 400 USD (sec. 96.02; amount as stated in the code PDF, not checked against later supplements) · connection deadline: 60 days (after official notice from the city (sec. 95.05), or after permit issuance (sec. 96.01))

  “the owners of any houses, buildings, or properties used for human occupancy, employment, recreation or other purposes, situated within the city and abutting on any street, alley or right-of-way in which there is now located, or may in the future be located, a public sanitary or combined sewer, are hereby required to install, at such owner's expense, suitable toilet facilities therein and a building sewer connecting such facilities directly with the proper public sewer”

• Subdividing landRegulated (with conditions)

  Division of land inside Riceville city limits (subdivision regulations are a city code chapter)

  • Only the table-of-contents entry was read; the approval steps, standards and exemptions in chapter 165 were not opened.

  “zoning and subdivision chapter 165 - subdivision regulations 755”

• Permit processPartial

  Sewer connection permit process in Riceville city; the general building permit process was not established

  • The 60-day completion requirement and extension for hardship apply to the sewer connection permit.
  • Permit may be revoked for violation of the sanitary sewer chapters.
  • Building permit process (chapter 155) not read.

  “the permit shall require the owner to complete construction and connection of the building sewer to the public sewer within sixty (60) days after the issuance of the permit, except that when a property owner makes sufficient showing that due to conditions beyond the owner's control or peculiar hardship, such time period is inequitable or unfair, an extension of time within which to comply with the provisions herein may be granted. any sewer connection permit may be revoked at any time for a violation of these chapters.”

Still unanswered

We looked and could not find an official answer yet. Silence is not permission; ask Riceville or Howard County directly.

• Building permit — New residential construction inside Riceville city
• Owner-builder exemption — Owner-builder construction inside Riceville city
• Building code adopted — Construction inside Riceville city: which building code the city adopts
• Inspections — Construction inside Riceville city
• Certificate of occupancy — Occupancy of new dwellings inside Riceville city

Each answer was extracted from an official source and independently re-checked against that source by a second reviewer. That is an evidence check, not legal advice. Rules change; confirm with the authority before you buy or build.