Commerce City building permits

Tips & gotchas

• AUTHORITY MODEL: Commerce City runs its own CITY building department -- the Building Safety Division within the Community Development Department -- confirmed via c3gov.com and the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control's (DFPC) prequalified building department list (contact: Russell Wonders). It is NOT a county, regional, or shared authority. This differs from Colorado Springs (regional PPRBD) elsewhere in this corpus but matches the simpler single-city-department pattern seen in Pueblo/SoCoBD (which is itself a joint city/town authority, still distinct from Commerce City's pure single-city model).
• Adams County itself does not directly issue building permits within Commerce City -- Adams County's role is limited to being the county Commerce City sits within; other Adams County cities in this corpus (Thornton, Westminster) similarly run their own departments rather than routing through the county.
• CORRECTED 2026-07-13: Commerce City DOES publish a numeric building-permit plan-review SLA, in a 'Review Time Frames' PDF (120KB) linked from the Step 2 (Permit Application) page -- this was originally missed because the link sits below the fold on that page and wasn't checked. Per that PDF: Residential Reviews get a 14-day initial review and a 7-day follow-up review; Commercial Reviews get a 21-day initial review, a 14-day 1st follow-up review, and a 7-day return time for any 2nd+ follow-up review; Temporary Event and Use Permits (TEU's) follow the Residential 14/7 pattern; Resubmittals/revisions follow the same residential-or-commercial pattern as the original submission. These figures are Building Safety Division-wide (by residential vs. commercial category), not broken out per individual permit type/trade -- each permitTypes entry in this file now applies the relevant figure with that caveat noted. The land-use/zoning timeframes (Subdivision Plats 4-6/8-12 months; Development Plans/PUDs 4-6/6-12 months) remain a separate, upstream process from this building-permit plan-review SLA. Source: https://www.c3gov.com/files/assets/city/v/1/cd-community-development/documents/developing-in-commerce-city/time-frames.pdf
• NOTABLE LOCAL QUIRK: Commerce City does NOT require a building permit for a RESIDENTIAL reroof (only commercial/multi-family reroofs and residential roof-sheathing replacement over 256 sq ft trigger a permit) -- this is a genuine outlier compared to most Colorado jurisdictions in this corpus, which typically DO require residential reroof permits (flat-fee or valuation-based).
• Building Permit Fee Schedule (Table 1-A, Directory of City Fees Section 2, effective as of December 16, 2024) is valuation-based and appears to be used as the general mechanism across nearly all permit types -- new construction, additions/alterations, and most standalone trade permits (electrical, plumbing, mechanical) -- since no separate flat-fee trade schedules were found published, unlike some other jurisdictions in this corpus (e.g., Colorado Springs' Individual Residential Mechanical & Plumbing Permit Fees table). Demolition is the one confirmed flat-fee exception at $75.00.
• Plan Review Fee is a flat 65% of the Building Permit Fee (or $150 if identical plans are resubmitted) -- simpler than many jurisdictions' tiered plan-review percentages.
• Local Design Criteria (c3gov.com): 35 psf ground snow load; 115 mph Vult wind speed (Exposure not separately stated as a distinct field on the published page); Seismic Design Category B; 36-inch frost line depth; ice barrier underlayment required; severe weathering; slight-to-moderate termite risk; elevation 5,160 ft.
• Adams County FIPS code is 001 (matches Thornton and Westminster's existing jurisdiction files in this corpus). Commerce City's own place FIPS code is 16495 (state 08 + place 16495) -- a standard ANSI/Census geographic identifier, not a city-specific fact requiring department citation, but the census.note field flags that principal review should confirm whether Commerce City has its own separately-reporting BPS place row (we2605c.txt) given it runs its own building department.
• Contractor licensing: Commerce City issues its own contractor licenses (Class A Unlimited General $120, Class B Limited General $81, Class C Residential General $60, Class D Residential Remodeling $60, Sub-Contractor $57) via the Directory of City Fees Section 5. Contractors must apply for permits using the eTRAKiT account tied to their license number; a lapsed license delays permit issuance at the Pre-Issuance Review step.
• Multiple outside agencies review plans separately from the city itself, depending on project location and type: Adams County Health, South Adams County Fire Department, Brighton Fire Rescue District, and South Adams County Water and Sanitation District. These are NOT part of Commerce City government and require separate submittals -- budget extra time and fees for these.
• No dedicated Solar PV design guide/checklist page was found published on c3gov.com beyond the general Residential Electrical (RELEC) / Commercial Electrical (CELEC) permit-type descriptions and the POST-installation Residential Solar Installation Certification form -- the certification form is not itself a pre-application design guide, so this file's solar coverage is folded into the Electrical Permit entry rather than broken out as a separate unverified solar-pv-permit entry.
• No dedicated demolition-specific Facts to Know document or design guide was found published on c3gov.com (checked the Facts to Know Library page in full and the Design Guides & Submission Requirements index) -- the demolition-permit entry in this file is built entirely from the general 'When a Permit Is Required' page, C3BC Sec. 5-7, the RDEMO/CDEMO permit-type descriptions, and the Section 2 fee schedule's explicit $75.00 flat Demolition Fee line, all genuinely sourced from the city's own site.