Manhattan area · Kansas

Metal buildings in Manhattan.

From Manhattan to Wamego, St. Marys and Junction City, we help customers plan workshops, garages, agricultural buildings, barndominium shells and commercial facilities across Riley, Pottawatomie and Geary counties.

Where you’re building matters here more than in most markets. Manhattan itself sits in two counties, and those two counties take opposite approaches to building regulation.

Permitting across the Manhattan area

Two counties meet at Manhattan, and they regulate buildings in almost opposite ways. Which side of the line you are on changes what happens to your drawings.

Unincorporated Riley County: permit required, no building code

Riley County requires a building permit before construction of any structure in its unincorporated areas, but the county has not adopted building codes for those areas. The permit exists to verify zoning, setbacks and Sanitary Code requirements. It does not involve construction inspection, and the inspector does not examine how the building is being put together.

That is worth sitting with for a moment. Nobody is going to check the engineering on your building. The responsibility for getting the structure right sits entirely with you and whoever supplies it, which is a reason to care more about the engineering rather than less.

Some practical specifics: a permit is not required for structures under 49 square feet, and permits are not required for driveways, fences or sidewalks. Permits are required for garages, storage containers, portable structures and grain bins, among others. Riley County Planning & Development — (785) 537-6332.

The county is explicit that cities within it set their own requirements, so a Riley County address inside a city limit is a different conversation.

Pottawatomie County: adopted codes and contractor licensing

The other side of Manhattan works the opposite way. Pottawatomie County has adopted the International Building Code, and its amendments are written to correspond with the Manhattan City Code, so county and city practice line up rather than diverge. Plans are expected from an architect or engineer registered in Kansas, per state statute.

The county also licenses contractors, with general contractor, trade contractor, individual and apprentice categories. If you are hiring an installer for a Pottawatomie County project, their licensing is part of the equation.

So Wamego and St. Marys sit in a genuinely more regulated environment than the unincorporated Riley County ground on the other side of Manhattan, and a quote built for one does not automatically work for the other.

Manhattan and Junction City

Manhattan is a city in Riley County that extends into Pottawatomie County, so a project inside city limits may sit in either one. The city permits inside its limits.

Junction City and the Fort Riley area are in Geary County, a separate authority with its own requirements. We confirm what applies to a specific Geary County address before drawings are produced rather than assuming it matches Riley or Pottawatomie.

How the agricultural exemption actually works

Kansas law limits what counties can require of agricultural buildings. Under K.S.A. 19-2908, county zoning regulations do not apply to land used for agricultural purposes or to buildings erected on it for those purposes, so long as they are used for agricultural purposes and not otherwise. A 2016 Kansas Attorney General opinion goes further, concluding that a county may not require buildings used solely for agricultural purposes to comply with county construction codes.

Three things are worth understanding before you count on it.

It restricts counties, not cities. Inside an incorporated city, the municipality sets its own requirements and this limitation does not apply.

Floodplain regulations still apply in designated floodplain areas, whatever the building’s use.

And Kansas statute does not define “agricultural purpose,” so the county makes that determination, usually through an application and a written determination rather than automatically. A building that is part agricultural and part something else may not qualify.

Risk category and engineering documentation

The risk category assigned to your building depends on its intended use and on the code provisions your jurisdiction enforces, not on its size alone. A building people occupy regularly is generally treated differently from unoccupied storage, but the classification and the documentation that follows from it are determined by the applicable code and the reviewing authority.

In this area that cuts both ways. In Pottawatomie County the documentation has to satisfy an adopted code and a plan reviewer. In unincorporated Riley County nobody is reviewing it, which makes it your own standard to hold. We design to the loads at your address either way.

Why engineering can change the price

Two buildings with identical dimensions can have different total costs depending on the engineering documentation required for their sites.

For example, when a qualifying agricultural building can use an accepted generic engineering package, tubular steel may offer a significant cost advantage. When site-specific engineering is required, the comparison can change.

We evaluate engineering costs alongside the building package, rather than treating them as an afterthought. That can make a difference in which structural system offers the lowest total cost for your project.