Westminster building permit requirements

Tips & gotchas

• Westminster physically straddles TWO counties — Adams County and Jefferson County (per the 2020 Census, roughly 71,240 residents live in the Adams County portion and 45,077 in the Jefferson County portion). The City of Westminster Building Division is the single, unified building-permit authority citywide regardless of which county a given parcel sits in. PermitBase routes Westminster's page under Adams County purely for URL/geo grouping — this has no bearing on which office actually reviews or issues the permit.
• Do not confuse this jurisdiction with Westminster, Maryland or Westminster, California — both have similarly-named Building Divisions with entirely separate codes, fee schedules, and departments. This file is exclusively for the City of Westminster, Colorado (cityofwestminster.us, which redirects to westminsterco.gov).
• Westminster's own domain, cityofwestminster.us, 301-redirects to www.westminsterco.gov — westminsterco.gov is the canonical, current domain for all Building Division content; cityofwestminster.us remains live only as the eTRAKiT portal subdomain (develop.cityofwestminster.us).
• Westminster issues ONE project-level building permit rather than separate trade permits for mechanical, plumbing, and electrical work — those trades are billed as a 15%-of-permit-fee and 15%-of-plan-review-fee add-on per trade, layered onto the single permit.
• Electrical and plumbing permits in Westminster are issued and administered by the City's own Building Division (NOT the Colorado DORA Electrical/Plumbing Board) — but contractors must still hold the underlying Colorado state DORA master's and contractor's license as a documented prerequisite before the City will issue its own (free, for electrical; $110, for plumbing) local Class C/Class B contractor license. Confirmed directly from the City's own Contractor License Application form.
• Westminster has used the 2021 International Codes (IBC, IRC, IFC, IPC, IMC, IFGC, IECC) with City amendments since June 1, 2024, plus the 2023 National Electrical Code. The City has publicly announced that the 2026 NEC will become effective August 1, 2026, and that a General Contractor plus any Mechanical/Plumbing/Electrical subcontractors must be registered with the City and signed onto the permit prior to permit release starting May 1, 2026 — both are near-term upcoming changes worth tracking if applying close to those dates.
• The 2021 IECC and the Colorado Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code were adopted specifically to satisfy Colorado HB22-1362's statewide minimum energy-code floor (WMC Sections 11-9-11 and 11-9-12).
• Westminster's Design Criteria for Structures (effective June 1, 2024) sets a 30 psf ground snow load, Seismic Design Category B, 36-inch frost depth, and Special Wind Region status with THREE distinct City Map Wind Zones (131/142/155 mph ultimate design wind speed for Zones 1/2/3, divided along Sheridan Blvd. and Wadsworth Pkwy.) — always confirm which zone a specific parcel falls into before finalizing structural plans; do not assume a single citywide wind speed.
• Accessory Dwelling Units are a very recently authorized use in Westminster: City Council approved the ADU ordinance November 18, 2024, effective January 1, 2025 — this is a newer program than in many neighboring Colorado cities, so double-check current zoning/process details given the recency of the change.
• Westminster's Building Permit Fee Schedule (effective January 1, 2026, document version V3-2026) is a single, clean, valuation-based table shared across nearly all permit types, supplemented by a Miscellaneous Permit Fees table with flat fees for solar ($300), demolition ($25), re-roofing ($100), water heater ($40), and other common single-family scopes — always check the Miscellaneous table first for common homeowner projects before defaulting to the valuation-based calculation.
• Gas utility in Westminster is Xcel Energy, which delivers gas at three pressures (6" W.C., 12" W.C., 2 psi) with an average heating value of 831 BTU/hr per CFH used in Westminster-specific gas pipe sizing calculations — confirm your meter's delivery pressure before sizing gas pipe per the City's Gas Pipe Plan Submittal Requirements.