Building Permit Required
A Building Permit is required for any construction that physically changes or adds structures to your property, or for work regulated by County Codes such as:
- New Building: Examples include but are not limited to: dwellings, garages, detached storage sheds (if over 120 square feet contact one of our Planners), carports, pole barns, commercial buildings, manufactured housing, or mobile homes.
- Additions: Examples include but are not limited to: buildings, swimming pools, decks, retaining walls over 48 inches, and fences over six feet high.
- Alterations: Beyond cosmetic, examples include but are not limited to: converting a garage to a family room, re-roofing, dry-walling, insulating, finishing a basement, window replacement, and re-siding.
- Repairs: Any repair involving structural members.
- Installations: Examples include but are not limited to: wood burning stoves, hot tubs, and solar collectors.
Please see Building Permits for Residential Construction (227 KB) for more information. EZ BP’s (easy building permits) are residential building permits that can be applied for that do not require plans for submittal.
Ask A Planner
We recommend you Ask a Planner to determine if a separate planning process may be required prior to submitting a Building Permit Application.
See Planning Processes to learn more about Planning review processes.
Submit a Building Permit
To submit a building permit request within Boulder County, you must adhere to the following requirements.
- Two copies of a site plan and one CD of the electronic PDF files (unless the work is limited to interior remodeling).
- Two copies of your Complete Set of Building Plans and one CD of the electronic PDF files.
- A Completed Building Permit Application Form (30 KB), also available at the Building Division. Building permits can be applied for and issued until 4:00PM.
What does a Complete Set of Building Plans Include?
The required information will vary depending on the type and scope of your project, however, in general they include:
- Your planned project must be prepared in a graphic form. Minimum ¼” scale.
- Construction drawings or plans must show all proposed work and details of compliance to adopted Boulder County Building Code Amendments (1.5 MB) and the Boulder County Land Use Code (2 MB).
- TWO complete sets of drawings and one CD of the electronic PDF files must be submitted to the Building Division for review (THREE with CD if in Jamestown).
- The plans and specifications must be of sufficient clarity to indicate the nature and extent of the proposed work.
- Incomplete plans will be returned to the applicant without review.
Additional Documentation that May Be Required
- A Soils Report: Soils reports may be required in the mountains and are always required in the plains (defined as east of Broadway and east of Foothills Highway)
- Warranty Deed: A copy of your warranty deed which has been recorded with the County Clerk and Recorder's Office for new residences and/or recently acquired property.
- Evidence of Water: Evidence of water supply as a water tap or letter of commitment from a water department; or, a copy of your approved well permit from the State of Colorado Engineer's Office in Denver. The State Engineer's Office can be reached at 303-866-3587.
- Evidence of Sanitation: Evidence of sanitation such as a sewer tap or letter of commitment from the sanitation agency; or, a copy of your septic approval form from the Boulder County Health Department. Whenever an addition increases the total number of bedrooms or involves sanitation facilities, Health Department Approval will be required.
- Access: If your property does not front on a County Road shown on the official Boulder County Road Map, it may be necessary to submit additional information such as recorded access easements or other proof of legal access. So that the inspectors will be able to find your property more easily, a location map should also be submitted unless you are in an easy-to-find location.
Please Note:
- A majority of the plains portion of the county consists of expansive soils and high groundwater. For this reason, a soils report is required for new buildings in areas other than mountainous areas.
- For residential projects creating new, additions to or remodel of conditioned floor area, a complete submittal must include all design detail for compliance with Boulder County BuildSmart Regulations (IRC Chapter 11: Energy Efficiency) (436 KB).
- For projects located in Wildfire Zone 1 (673 KB) (per Sections R722 & R327 of the adopted Boulder County Building Code) exterior building materials are regulated. The proposed exterior materials should be clearly labeled on the plans. These materials must meet the wildfire site classification requirements specific to the building site (i.e., Extreme, High, or Moderate).
Submittal Checklists
The following submittal checklists and forms are prepared to help with specific project types.
For a complete list of submittal checklists, forms and publications, view Building Publications or Planning Publications.