Change of Use / Change of Occupancy Permit (South Metro Fire Rescue) in Bow Mar, Colorado

Bow Mar requires a change of use / change of occupancy permit (south metro fire rescue) for: Ordinance No. 340 adds a new IFC Sec. 105.6.25 ('Buildings and facilities'): 'Any owner or owner's authorized agent who intends to construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish or change occupancy of a building, or structure, or facility...shall first make application to the fire code official and obtain the required permit' — the fire code official is South Metro Fire Rescue's Fire Marshal or designee (Sec. 103.1/103.2, also documented in this file's fire-sprinkler-alarm-permit entry); South Metro Fire Rescue's own published 'Systems and Other Fees' schedule lists a distinct 'Change of Use' line item with its own plan-check and inspection fee — independently confirming this is a real, currently-administered permit category, not merely dormant amendment language with no operative process; Separately, and administered by the Town of Bow Mar (not SMFR): Municipal Code Sec. 18-7 requires a Certificate of Occupancy before any building may be occupied — 'Once all the inspections have been satisfactorily completed and the Building Department determines that a new home is ready for occupancy, the Building Department shall issue a certificate of occupancy. No building may be occupied or inhabited until a certificate of occupancy has been issued.' This Section is written in the context of new-home construction and does not separately spell out a change-of-occupancy CO workflow for an existing home distinct from the SMFR fire-code permit above — genuinely unclear from the published text how the two interact for a change-of-occupancy scenario specifically; Given Bow Mar's exclusively residential zoning (Sec. 16-3's six districts; Sec. 16-11's town-wide prohibition on professional offices/commercial establishments outside an approved Planned Development), the realistic change-of-occupancy scenarios here are narrow — e.g. converting non-habitable accessory space to a different residential occupancy, or an occupancy change tied to an addition or remodel — not a commercial-tenant occupancy reclassification, since no such use exists anywhere in Town (see this file's NO COMMERCIAL PERMIT TRACK finding); Confirm with both South Metro Fire Rescue (via the Accela Permit Portal) and the Town of Bow Mar Building Department which permit intake governs a specific proposed change, since this permit sits at the intersection of SMFR's fire-code review and the Town's own Building Permit/Certificate of Occupancy process, and no single published document walks through the combined workflow. If your project isn't listed, confirm with Town of Bow Mar Building Department at 303-795-2063 before starting work.

In Bow Mar, the published Change of Use (South Metro Fire Rescue) is: $174.24 plan check + $413.75 inspection = $587.99 total. These are the jurisdiction's own published figures — see the fee schedule table and source citations on this page.

Bow Mar's published plan-review target for a change of use / change of occupancy permit (south metro fire rescue) is 1–5 business days.

You'll need: SMFR Change of Occupancy Application. Depending on your project, Bow Mar may also ask for: Certificate of Occupancy Request (Town of Bow Mar Building Department). See the required-documents checklist on this page for details on each.

Bow Mar requires 2 inspection(s) for a change of use / change of occupancy permit (south metro fire rescue), in order: SMFR Occupancy Compliance Review, Town of Bow Mar Certificate of Occupancy Inspection. Schedule each through Town of Bow Mar Building Department (303-795-2063).

Apply through Town of Bow Mar Building Department at 2 Middlefield Road, Columbine Valley, CO 80123. Phone: 303-795-2063, email: bzapata-diaz@columbinevalley.org. Office hours: 8:00am - 4:00pm, Monday through Friday (Building Department office, per the Town's live Building Permits page; the page notes these hours 'will be shortened due to COVID-19' — an apparently stale caveat still present on the live page as of this review). Building Department Coordinator Bonnie Zapata-Diaz. Bow Mar Building Inspector Terry Weis (reviews all plans and conducts all inspections) direct line 303-522-3331.. Official information: https://www.townofbowmar.org/building-permits.

Yes — unusually for this corpus, where most peer small Colorado towns have no standalone change-of-use process. Bow Mar's Ordinance No. 340 added IFC Sec. 105.6.25, requiring anyone who intends to change the occupancy of a building to first obtain a permit from the fire code official, South Metro Fire Rescue. SMFR's own published fee schedule confirms this with a distinct 'Change of Use' fee line item ($587.99 total).

South Metro Fire Rescue (SMFR), the Town's appointed fire code official — not the Town of Bow Mar Building Department directly. Separately, the Town's own Building Department administers the Certificate of Occupancy required under Municipal Code Sec. 18-7 before any building may be occupied; how the two processes combine for a specific change-of-occupancy scenario is not spelled out in a single published document, so confirm directly with both.