Akron building permits
Department contacts, adopted codes, permit types, fees, and gotchas for Akron, Colorado.
Last verified 2026-07-13 · Source · Embed this page’s badge · Version history
Building department
- Address
- 250 Main Ave, Akron, CO 80720
- Phone
- 970-345-2624
- Office hours
- Monday - Thursday, 7:30 AM - 5:30 PM; closed Fridays. Fax: 970-345-2617. Per Town Code 10-1-1, the Building Inspector is appointed by the Board of Trustees at its first regular meeting following each biennial election and serves as chief enforcement officer for all Title 10 building regulations (except fire prevention code); there is no separate physical 'Building Department' office distinct from Town Hall in this small Eastern Plains town (2020 Census population 1,757).
- Website
- Official site
Inspection guide
See how inspections work in Akron — sequence, scheduling & re-inspection fees.
Codes adopted
Colorado has no statewide-mandated building code edition. Under the Colorado Constitution's home-rule provisions (art. XX, home rule for municipalities since 1902; home rule for counties since 1970), building codes and zoning are an enumerated home-rule charter power, so cities and counties adopt and amend their own construction codes independently — predominantly the I-Codes, with editions and local amendments varying by jurisdiction. The one statewide floor is for energy: HB22-1362 (2022) created the Energy Code Board (jointly appointed by the Colorado Energy Office and the Department of Local Affairs) and requires that, on or after July 1, 2023 and before July 1, 2026, any municipality or county that adopts or updates a building code must adopt and enforce an energy code achieving performance equivalent to or better than the 2021 IECC together with the board's Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code (which includes electric-ready, EV-ready, and solar-ready provisions); from July 1, 2026 onward the floor shifts to the board's Model Low Energy and Carbon Code or an equivalent. Electrical and plumbing permitting defaults to the Colorado State Electrical Board and State Plumbing Board (within DORA's Division of Professions and Occupations) — the state issues permits and inspects statewide except in counties/jurisdictions that operate their own certified Electrical or Plumbing Inspection Program, in which case the local program has authority instead. Always confirm the currently adopted code edition, local amendments, and inspection authority (state board vs. local program) with the specific jurisdiction before submitting plans.
- 2018 International Building Code (IBC), chapters 1-35 plus appendices C, E, G, H, I, and J — Town Code 10-2-1, adopted by Ordinance 514 (1-6-2014), amended by Ordinance 589 (6-5-2023). The Ord. 589 amendment did NOT change the underlying edition year — Town Code 10-2-1 as currently published still names the 2018 IBC specifically, not a newer cycle — so the 2023 ordinance is treated as a re-adoption/amendment of the same 2018 edition rather than a code-cycle update, per direct reading of the current Town Code text (American Legal Publishing, checked 2026-07-06).
- 2009 International Residential Code (IRC), chapters 1-43 plus appendices B, C, D, E, G, H, J, and K — Town Code 10-3-1, adopted by Ordinance 515 (1-6-2014). This is a materially older code cycle than the Building Code (2009 IRC vs. 2018 IBC); no evidence of a later IRC re-adoption was found anywhere in the Town Code, the Town's ordinances index, or web search as of this review.
- No standalone plumbing, mechanical, fuel gas, or electrical code chapter exists anywhere in Town Code Title 10 (Building and Development) — Chapters run: Ch.1 General Building Provisions, Ch.2 Building Code (IBC 2018), Ch.3 Residential Code (IRC 2009), Ch.4 Building Numbers (addressing), Ch.5 Colorado Plains Regional Airport Overlay Zoning, Ch.6 Shipping Containers. Checked the full Title 10 table of contents and walked every chapter node directly on American Legal Publishing's code library (codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/akron_co) — confirmed no electrical/plumbing/mechanical/energy chapter exists.
- No energy code (IECC or otherwise) has been adopted by the Town of Akron — no such chapter exists in Title 10, and no ordinance adopting an energy code was found via direct Town Code review or web search. See localAmendments for the HB22-1362 analysis.
Permit types & fees
Residential Building Permit (New Construction)
Required for new construction of one- and two-family dwellings and townhomes (not more than three stories) in the Town of Akron. Reviewed under the 2009 IRC as locally adopted and amended (Town Code 10-3-1, 10-3-2), including Akron's specific Table R301.2(1) design criteria (20 psf ground snow load, 90 mph wind speed, Seismic Design Category C, 30-inch frost depth). Issued by the Town's Building Inspector.
Residential Addition / Remodel Permit
Required for additions and repairs/alterations to existing structures in the Town of Akron. Reviewed under the 2009 IRC (additions to one-/two-family dwellings and townhomes) or 2018 IBC as applicable, both as locally amended. Akron's adopted IBC/IRC Section 105.2/R105.2 exemptions apply as amended by Town Code 10-2-2/10-3-2; no dollar-value repair/alteration threshold is locally published (confirmed 2026-07-23 by direct reading of the current Town Code text — see requirements below).
Electrical Permit
Electrical work in the Town of Akron is NOT permitted through a Town-run electrical program — Akron's Title 10 Town Code contains no electrical chapter, and the Town's own live Building Department page states plainly: 'All plumbing and electrical permits are handled by the State of Colorado.' Electrical permits are issued and inspected by the Colorado State Electrical Board (DORA Division of Professions and Occupations), consistent with the statewide default rule that state boards cover jurisdictions without their own certified local program.
EV Charger / EVSE Permit
The Town of Akron has no local electrical permitting program (Title 10 contains no electrical chapter), so a residential EV charger / EVSE installation follows the same path as all other electrical work in Akron: a Colorado State Electrical Board (DORA/DPO) permit, not a Town-issued permit. No web search of the State Electrical Board's fee materials, the Town's Building Department page, or the Town's live application form turned up an EV-charger-specific fee line item or expedited process — an EV charger circuit is billed under the State Electrical Board's general fee schedule like any other electrical installation.
Plumbing Permit
Plumbing work in the Town of Akron is NOT permitted through a Town-run plumbing program — Akron's Title 10 Town Code contains no plumbing chapter, and the Town's own live Building Department page states plainly: 'All plumbing and electrical permits are handled by the State of Colorado.' Plumbing permits are issued and inspected by the Colorado State Plumbing Board (DORA Division of Professions and Occupations); the same live Town page states the resulting state plumbing permit number should then be provided to the Town of Akron.
Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Permit
Required for installation of rooftop solar photovoltaic systems in the Town of Akron. The structural/building portion is permitted by the Town (valuation-based Building Permit), while the electrical/interconnection portion is permitted directly by the Colorado State Electrical Board (DORA), since Akron's Town Code has no local electrical chapter. As with all Colorado jurisdictions, the aggregate permit fee is capped by state law at $500 for a residential system and $1,000 for a commercial system (C.R.S. § 24-48.5-113, enacted by HB21-1284).
New residential construction activity
New privately-owned residential construction onlyHousing units authorized by building permits for new privately-owned residential construction — this is not total permit volume (no commercial permits or remodels).
- Latest month (2026-05)
- No data reported
- Trailing 12 months
- No data reported
- Year to date (2026 YTD)
- No data reported
- Full year 2025
- No data reported
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey (BPS), 2026-05 vintage. Census survey data — separate from the permit-requirements verification above. All Colorado building activity
Tips & gotchas
- The seed URL townofakron.colorado.gov/departments/building (and its sibling /building) no longer resolves to a live Building Department page — both permanently 301-redirect to the Town's homepage. This is NOT a removed/reorganized Building Department, though: the Town migrated its entire website from townofakron.colorado.gov to a new CivicPlus-hosted domain, www.townofakron.com (confirmed via curl -I, Location header), and the real Building Department page is live at https://www.townofakron.com/179/Building with a current downloadable application PDF at https://www.townofakron.com/DocumentCenter/View/201 (both fetched directly and confirmed live 2026-07-13). This file's code-adoption facts remain grounded in the Town's official Code of Ordinances Title 10 (Building and Development), published via American Legal Publishing, now supplemented by the live Building Department page and application form for procedural/contact facts.
- IMPORTANT amlegal.com collision: searching for an 'Akron... Building Code Fee Schedule' on codelibrary.amlegal.com surfaces a page at codes/akron/latest/... that is actually Akron, INDIANA's code, not Akron, Colorado's — confirmed by directly reading that page's content ('Akron, IN Code of Ordinances'). Akron, Colorado's actual code library path is codes/akron_co/latest/akron_co/... — always confirm the state suffix before citing any amlegal.com URL for this jurisdiction, mirroring the corpus's existing teton-county-mt cross-state-collision precedent.
- Akron has adopted two different code-cycle vintages simultaneously: 2018 IBC (Ordinance 514/589) for the Building Code chapter, but only 2009 IRC (Ordinance 515) for the Residential Code chapter — a materially older cycle. No newer IRC re-adoption was found. Confirm with the Building Inspector which chapter/edition governs any project that could plausibly fall under either.
- Akron has NOT adopted any energy code (no IECC chapter exists in Title 10). Its most recent Title 10 code action (Ordinance 589, 6-5-2023) amended the Building Code adoption section but did not change the adopted edition away from 2018 IBC, so it is not clearly the kind of 'update' that would trigger Colorado HB22-1362's energy-code obligation. Do NOT assume any population-based exemption applies — a bill that would have created a flat exemption for municipalities under 2,500 residents (SB25-141) FAILED in the 2025 legislative session (postponed indefinitely 3-25-2025) and was never enacted; no such threshold exists in current law.
- Electrical AND plumbing permits in Akron both default to Colorado State Boards (DORA/DPO State Electrical Board and State Plumbing Board respectively) — the Town's Title 10 Code contains no chapter for either trade. This was independently corroborated by web search specifically naming a State of Colorado electrical inspector for the Akron area and describing the local coordination step (provide the state plumbing permit number to the Town once obtained).
- Akron's local Section 105.2 amendments to BOTH the adopted IBC and IRC delete several of the base national code's standard permit exemptions for small projects — meaning minor work that a national-code reader might assume is permit-exempt could still require a Town permit here. Confirm specific exemption status with the Building Inspector (970-345-2624) rather than assuming a base-code exemption applies.
- Single-family and duplex homes in Akron are explicitly NOT required to have automatic fire sprinklers (Section R313.2 deleted by local amendment) — this requirement applies only to townhouses (Section R313.1, effective 2-3-2014), a narrower trigger than some peer jurisdictions.
- No numeric plan-review turnaround or general dollar fee schedule could be located anywhere in the Town Code or the Town's current live Building Department page (townofakron.com/179/Building, re-checked 2026-07-13) for any permit type in this file — Colorado is home-rule with no statewide clock, and the Town's own page confirms fees are calculated per-application from construction cost rather than published as a table. The one exception is a specific, narrowly-scoped $24.60 base fee for Manufactured/Mobile Home placement permits, which IS published on the live page and is captured on the residential-building-permit entry. Every other fee/timeline field is honestly null/empty with a documented chase trail rather than an invented figure or a figure borrowed from the wrong same-name Akron (Indiana) municipality.
- Per this batch's task scoping, Washington County itself is on the Colorado Division of Housing's list of counties with no building department for its unincorporated area — but the live Washington County Planning and Zoning webpage (checked 2026-07-06) currently describes a 'Land Use Office' that administers building permits for the unincorporated portion of the county and lists a Building Permit Application form. This is flagged for controller-level reconciliation against data/counties.json; it does not change Akron's own status as the town's Title 10 program is the clearly governing authority within Akron town limits regardless of county practice.