Residential Building Permit (New Construction) in Bow Mar, Colorado

Bow Mar requires a residential building permit (new construction) for: Design Review Board (DRB) approval required BEFORE building permit submittal for any exterior work — DRB meets the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM; Plans must comply with the 2021 IRC as locally amended, and meet the Town's Table R301.2(1) design criteria: 30 psf roof snow load, 110 mph nominal / 140 mph ultimate wind speed, 36-inch frost depth, Seismic Design Category B, Severe weathering, 1 degree F winter design temperature; Site-specific soils report by a Colorado-registered geo-technical engineer required with the application for all new habitable structures (amended R401.4); Two (2) sets of construction drawings (24"x36") required: plot plan, landscape/civil drawings, mechanical/electrical/plumbing drawings, structural drawings stamped by a Colorado-licensed professional engineer; Drainage plan by a licensed engineer required for any new home, analyzing drainage effects on the subject property and adjacent properties; All contractors (General Contractor and any subcontracted trades) must hold current Town of Bow Mar contractor registration; plumbers and electricians must additionally hold current Colorado state licenses; Projects valued at $50,000 or more require a detailed line-item Schedule of Values submitted with the application; A photometric (lighting) plan and permit required for new construction/major remodels valued over $250,000; Application and plan sets submitted to the Town of Bow Mar Building Department office at 2 Middlefield Road, Columbine Valley, CO 80123 (shared office with the Town of Columbine Valley). 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 Building Permit Fee — valuation $1-$500 is: $56. Additional published fees: Building Permit Fee — valuation $501-$2,000 — $56 for the first $500 plus $7.25 per additional $100; Building Permit Fee — valuation $2,001-$25,000 — $164 for the first $2,000 plus $33.25 per additional $1,000; Building Permit Fee — valuation $25,001-$50,000 — $930 for the first $25,000 plus $24.00 per additional $1,000; Building Permit Fee — valuation $50,000-$100,000 — $1,530 for the first $50,000 plus $16.50 per additional $1,000; Building Permit Fee — valuation $100,000-$500,000 — $2,361 for the first $100,000 plus $13.25 per additional $1,000; Building Permit Fee — valuation $500,000-$1,000,000 — $7,684 for the first $500,000 plus $11.25 per additional $1,000; Building Permit Fee — valuation $1,000,000 and up — $13,325 for the first $1,000,000 plus $7.50 per additional $1,000; Transportation Utility Fee — 1% of Total Project Valuation; General Contractor Registration (annual) — $160/year; Independent Plan Review (if required) — Cost of independent engineer/architect review added to permit fee. These are the jurisdiction's own published figures — see the fee schedule table and source citations on this page.

Bow Mar does not publish a plan-review timeline for this permit. Contact Town of Bow Mar Building Department at 303-795-2063 for current turnaround.

You'll need: Building Permit Application with Plan Review; Two (2) sets of Construction Drawings (24"x36"); Site-Specific Soils Report; Drainage Plan; DRB Approval; Town of Bow Mar Contractor Registration. Depending on your project, Bow Mar may also ask for: Schedule of Values; Asbestos Report. See the required-documents checklist on this page for details on each.

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 the last verification). 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.

The Town of Bow Mar Building Department issues its own building permits under Bow Mar's Municipal Code Chapter 18 (as most recently amended by Ordinance No. 340). Day-to-day administration — plan intake, review, and permit issuance — is handled out of the Columbine Valley Town Hall office (2 Middlefield Road, Columbine Valley, CO 80123) under an intergovernmental services arrangement, but Bow Mar's own codes, fees, and Building Inspector (Terry Weis) govern the review.

Yes. Any exterior work requires Design Review Board (DRB) approval before the Building Department will process a building permit application. The DRB meets the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM.

No — there is no commercial building permit or tenant-improvement track, and as a practical matter there is nowhere in Bow Mar that commercial construction can currently occur. The Town's Zoning Ordinance (Municipal Code Chapter 16, codified through Ordinance No. 341, March 14, 2024) divides the entire incorporated area into just six districts (Sec. 16-3): Residential District I, Residential District II, Recreational District (limited to recreational or municipal uses, with residential use expressly prohibited), Utility District (limited to domestic-water wells, pumps, storage, treatment and transmission facilities), Agricultural District (crops, livestock, and a maximum of three single-family dwellings on 30+ acre parcels), and a Planned Development (PD) District. There is no commercial or business zone district, and Sec. 16-11 ('Trade or business prohibited,' Ord. 293/295, 2014) states that 'the maintenance of a professional office or commercial establishment dealing with the public on the premises is hereby prohibited, except as expressly allowed in an approved Official Development Plan in the Planned Development District.' The PD District (Sec. 16-9) is the one theoretical path to commercial use — it exists specifically for 'a mix of business and commercial uses' (residential, industrial, agricultural, marijuana, and sexually-oriented uses are expressly prohibited in a PD), but it can be applied only to sites of five acres or larger (reducible at the Building Commissioner's discretion) and requires a Board of Trustees-approved Official Development Plan; the Town's most recent published zoning map (the 2015 Community Plan 'Existing Zoning Map') shows only Agricultural, R-1 Residential, R-2 Residential, and Recreation areas — no PD-zoned parcel. Consistent with all of this, none of the Town's Building Permits, Building Procedures, or Building Permit Fees pages contain any commercial permit category — the word 'commercial' does not appear on the fee schedule at all. One difference from some other residential-only Colorado towns: Bow Mar does adopt the 2021 IBC with all appendices (Sec. 18-8, Ordinance No. 340), so a technical code basis would exist if a PD/ODP ever created a commercial parcel — construction there would route through this same Town building permit process (DRB review plus Building Department plan review under Chapter 18), as there is no other track.