Federal Heights building permits

Tips & gotchas

• Federal Heights uses ONE unified Building Permit Application covering nearly every trade and scope (New Building, Addition, Repair/Replace, Alteration/Tenant Finish, Patio Cover/Carport, Demolition, Plumbing, Mechanical, Re-roof, Solar, Fence, Other) rather than separate application forms per trade — check the correct 'Classification of Work' box and category number rather than hunting for a trade-specific form.
• Electrical is entirely state-administered: the City's own Building page states 'The State of Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) administers all electrical permits and inspections' for Federal Heights — never assume the City's Building Permit Application covers electrical work; it does not appear as a category at all on that form.
• Plumbing IS issued locally by the City (item 7 on the application), but the City runs contemporaneous State Plumbing Board (DORA) license verification for the Plumbing Contractor and Master Plumber listed on every permit, and inspectors can fail an inspection pending verification — a meaningfully different posture than electrical (fully state-run) or mechanical/building (no state license check by the City at all).
• Federal Heights adopted the 2021-cycle ICC codes (IBC, IRC, IFC, IMC, IPC, IEBC, IPMC, ISPSC, IgCC, ICCPC) plus 2021 NFPA 101 via Ordinance 23-02, effective April 15, 2023 — but explicitly RETAINED the 2018 IECC AND the 2018 IFGC rather than upgrading those two codes alongside the rest (verified directly against the Ordinance 23-02 text; the IFGC point corrects a prior 'IFGC updated to 2021' error in this file's codesAdopted list). This adoption date (April 15, 2023) falls just before Colorado's HB22-1362 statewide energy-code floor window opened (July 1, 2023), which will require the City's NEXT code update to bring the IECC to the 2021 edition (or better) plus electric/solar-ready provisions, or after July 2026 the new Model Low Energy and Carbon Code. RE-CHASED 2026-07-23: pulled the City's full Municode ordinance history through the current codification (Supp. 42, May 28, 2026, codified through Ord. 26-03) — the only amendment to the Adoption section since 23-02 is Ordinance 25-08 (7/1/2025), which added an IRC appendix for sub-850-sq-ft ADU structures and did not touch the IECC; no ordinance updating the IECC was found. The IECC's HB22-1362 compliance status remains a genuinely open statutory-interpretation question (see the HB22-1362 entry in localAmendments for full detail) — confirm current status directly with the Building Department (303-412-3526) for any project needing certainty on the applicable energy code.
• Plan review fees are explicitly WAIVED for four specific project types: water heaters, furnaces, air conditioning, and roofing — per the City's own Building Fees page language ('and similar projects not requiring plan review'). Don't assume the standard 65% plan-review surcharge applies to these straightforward replacement/repair categories.
• Building Use Tax in Federal Heights is calculated as 4% of an ASSUMED 50%-of-valuation materials cost (an effective ~2% of total project valuation) — a distinct calculation method from some peer Colorado jurisdictions that apply a different assumed-materials percentage.
• Demolition ('Wrecking and Moving') fees come from a completely separate, much smaller fee schedule ($55-$110 for wrecking; $30-$75+ for moving, both by square footage) than the general valuation-based Building Permit Fee table — do not apply the standard construction fee tiers to a demolition project. An asbestos notification/permit is additionally required for every demolition.
• A solar installation requires permits from TWO separate agencies: the City (structural/roof-mounting portion, Category 10 on the standard application) and the State of Colorado DORA Electrical Board (wiring/interconnection) — there is no combined or expedited process published by Federal Heights for this, unlike some mountain-corridor Colorado towns.
• The City publishes a wide, granular library of scope-specific Building Guides (Uncovered Decks and Porches, Patio Covers and Carports, Enclosing Patios, Residential Addition, Detached Garages, Basement Finish, Pole Barns, Fence Guide, Storage Sheds, Roofing Guide, Mobile Home Park Plot Plan) each with English/Spanish and, for several, a manufactured-home-specific variant — pull the exact guide matching your project rather than relying on a generic submittal checklist.
• No numeric plan-review turnaround (days or weeks) is published anywhere across the City's Building page, Building Fees page, Adopted Technical Codes page, Building Guides page, or the Building Permit Application PDF for ANY permit category — Colorado is home-rule with no statewide review clock, and this file's reviewTimelineDays are honestly null throughout rather than borrowed from a neighboring Adams County jurisdiction's published figure (e.g. Northglenn's 10-14 business day Plan Review Permit SLA belongs only to Northglenn).
• Inspection requests must be submitted (by email to building@fedheights.org or by phone to 303-412-3534) by 3:30 p.m. the day before the desired inspection date — this is a scheduling-window rule for the appointment itself, not a plan-review commitment.
• Accessory Dwelling Units are governed by a dedicated zoning article — Chapter 70, Article XVI, Secs. 70-920 through 70-927, enacted by Ordinance No. 25-07 (adopted 7/1/2025) per Colorado HB24-1152 and independently verified 2026-07-23 directly against the City's Municode-hosted ordinance text (previously this file relied on an unconfirmed third-party citation). ADUs are limited to 800 sq ft, permitted only in R-1/R-5/PUD districts, require a Community Development Department pre-application approval PLUS a recorded Adams County declaration of restrictions BEFORE a building permit can issue, and are permitted under the existing 'Addition' or 'New Building' category on the standard Building Permit Application — Federal Heights still does not publish a dedicated ADU permit type or fee category distinct from that general form, but the underlying zoning standards are now fully sourced (see the ADU entry in localAmendments).