Building in Whitehall and the Jefferson Valley.

Whitehall sits in a wide valley between the Tobacco Root Mountains and the Highlands, a small community with great land around it. Dan grew up here. The winters are often milder than in other parts of Montana, but it's still Montana, and with a pass on either side of town the weather finds its way in. We build for it.

We build all over the state. But this is where we're from, it's a special place to us, and if your land is anywhere between the Boulder River and the Madison Valley, you're in our backyard.

Neither Jefferson County nor Madison County runs a building code, and none of the towns out here has a certified building department, so there's no building permit and no building inspection for a house. The state exempts houses from its own building permit too, but state electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits still apply, and the power company needs the electrical permit before it connects a new service. Where no building code is enforced, state law requires the builder to certify in writing that the house meets the state energy code. We put that in writing on every house.

Inside Whitehall, the town has its own permit before you build, and we take care of it. In the north end of Jefferson County, around Clancy and Montana City, county zoning applies and the Planning Department in Boulder issues a site permit. Around Whitehall and Cardwell there's no county zoning. Madison County has no county zoning either, but every new structure goes through its pre-construction safety review: a site plan showing where the driveway meets the road, which is also how the county assigns the 911 address. The Sanitarian's office there issues a construction permit as well.

A driveway onto a county road needs an approach permit from the county Road Department. Onto a state highway, it comes from the Montana Department of Transportation.

The Jefferson, Boulder, Ruby, Beaverhead and Madison rivers all run through this country. Building in a mapped floodplain takes a floodplain development permit from the county, or from the town inside Whitehall, Boulder, Ennis, Twin Bridges or Sheridan. No new building is allowed in the floodway itself, and a new home's lowest floor has to sit two feet above the base flood elevation. If you're financing, a federally backed loan requires flood insurance in a mapped floodplain.

Jefferson County has been working from flood maps that took effect in 1986. FEMA issued new preliminary maps in November 2024, the appeal period closed in December 2025, and the county held hearings in September and October 2026 to adopt them with updated regulations. Ennis's new maps took effect in December 2024. We check the current map before we plan a river lot, because the line may have moved.

Septic permits come from Jefferson County Environmental Health in Boulder or the Madison County Sanitarian in Virginia City. Madison County requires a county-licensed installer, and a lot over 20 acres, or one created before the state's subdivision sanitation law, needs a nondegradation analysis first. A household well under the state's exempt limits needs no water right, but since January 2026 you have to file a Notice of Intent with DNRC before you use the water.

Power is NorthWestern Energy in and around the towns and Vigilante Electric Cooperative through much of the Jefferson and Ruby valleys. Which one serves your lot decides how the power run is priced, so we find out before we put a number on it.