I am doing a simple informal survey on the cost of building permits. I moved to Colorado and am surprised the way they calculate costs here. The base price for the permit is based on square footage, which I think is fairly common, but then they add 65% of that for a “plan review” fee.
If I have a plan stamped and designed by a PE, they still charge me for the plan review fee although the reviewer is not a PE, a building inspector or a contractor.
Has anyone else found this situation?
Bob
Replies
$30 flat rate plus $2 per thousand of job cost. You can give them detailed plans from the best architect around and it still has to pass muster. Don't think it matters who drew it, they're putting their stamp on it, they're going to go over it. But the building inspectors and the fire inspector review, and they know their stuff. Actually, for all the griping, the rates here are pretty cheap to what I hear coming from lots of other places. SIL about an hour away, had to shell out $1500 for permit on a $185K house. Different jurisdiction.
"The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb " lyrics by Roger Waters
> had to shell out $1500 for permit on a $185K house.
Try $4k for a permit on a $77k remodel. $2k to the city, the other $2k for the structural engineer. They just toss it back in your face if you don't have that wet stamp, no matter who did the actual calcs.... LADBS appears to be a profit center for the city.
-- J.S.
Youch. Kind of thing not to forget about in the bid.
Ours is about to change, I fear. This impact fee baloney went through and had lawsuits on it the first hour. Now that's all got to get resolved, but they're talking about starting "small", which by current definition is $10K per new home, and on commercial is $6 per s.f. of floor space. Yeah, that'll make new building start going up in a hurry, huh? So permits in the near future could go from $450 to $10450 for the same project. Killer.
Piff - hey, that bowls me over. I've heard you talk so much about pricing out in your neck of the woods, I'd have expected a lot different, but your permits are as cheap as here. Gawd, something in common. Whodathunkit?"The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb " lyrics by Roger Waters
http://www.metrokc.gov has all the king co WA permit fees listed - they will astound you if you are not used to regulative local governments. Many of the school districts around here tack on a $3 to $5 thousand "impact" fee also.
$30 minimum.
ten cents per sq ft for living areas and five cents for decks, garages, unfinished basements etc.
That's unless it is commercial. Whole different set of rules.
It used to be a flat $25 for a permit 'till 'bout five years ago.
Excellence is its own reward!
Bob,
What part of Colorado? We pay about $3200 for a 1500 sq.ft townhome thats been built 60-70 times . Go outside city limits same county build a 2000sq. ft. single family $350k custom permit is $2200.
mailbox permit, I think is $85.00, fence permit is $85.00, carport permit is $85.00, new home permit as of 3 years ago was $6,500.oo . New homes and additions are based on cubic feet. On the permit, there is a list of items that you are paying into, parks, fire, police, libary, etc. Prescott, Arizona, and of course all this info goes to the tax accessor's desk.
Mailbox permit???? $85 to allow you to dig a hole and replace the mailbox and post? Better not let the county government know about my new mailbox!
Here in New Jersey, it is cost of the project muliplied by the square footage of added space, divided by three. Then add twice the volumn times ten, divided by the wind speed over the client's age times his number of children.
Unless they use the dartboard method.............When all else fails, use duct tape!
Got a permit for a remodel/renovation in Skagit Co. Wa. - permit fee/cost was based on value of the work.
Pemit fee for a new shop(new construction), 800sf was $365.00. Don't know if it was based on estimated value of the finished building or what. Total construction cost for the shop is around $35,000.00.
I guess I better not give my opinion of the county building department personell in an open forum like this.....(grin)
Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
7 cents a square foot in a small rural county in KY. That is for anything under roof. garage, carport, pole barn, equipment shed, all the same.
Dave
We pay $7.00/ $1,000.00 of estimated construction cost. $50,000.00 project eqauls a $350.00 permit.
Of course if the project is in a gated subdivision, they cahrge anywhere from $150.00 to $1500.00 for their architectural review board to review the plans and tell you if it meets their "vision" of how the house should look.TCW Specialists in Custom Remodeling.
Bob-
The permit fee structure in most of Colorado is straight out of the Uniform Building Code, which is the code that has been adopted in most jurisdictions. Some places have switched to the International Building Code, and guess what, the fee has gone even higher.
-Dave
Southern California is beyond absurd. In addition to $8,500 in general building permit fees for a 3800sq.ft new home, I have $1,500 in "water runoff", $1,500 for environmental impact review, $500 for "soils engineering" and $2,500 for water and sewer inspections and I don't even have city water or sewer!! I'm on a private well and septic system because the city hasn't run water or sewer up to my lot. If I wasn't allergic to shoveling snow, I'd move!
Experienced, but still dangerous!
Sound like the Temecula/Menifee area?
Neighbor just got his plans approved days before the new Road tax for the freeway connector from Highway 79 to Freeway215 via a road call Scott. The additional assessment fee would have been $7,000. This doesn't include the regular building fees/school fees. He/We would have never used the road. It's for all the people who can't get out of Temecula because their roads are inadequate for the population. Problem is we live near by and that is going to put way to much strain on all of our surrounding roads. We are in the low budget area(2 1/2-10 acre area). The big buck areas like Temecula/Murrieta have all of the political/finacial resources, not us. So we suffer at their expense.
$350 for a 1700 square foot, $180,000 house in Kenai, Alaska. Issued 36 hours after submission. I think it 15 cents per square foot for the house. 7 cents on garage, shop, etc.
Also, in Alaska, if the City Engineer wants to review plans that a PE stamped, the City Engineer has to be a PE. And that is done here. Also true of other regulatory agencies like the Dept of Env. Con. All states have an exemption for federal work, but many cities don't comply with the professional licensing requirements in their state.
David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
$760 for a permit on 500 sq ft addition (no plumbing, just a couple of simple rooms) in Utah, plus another $100 for a variance to replace the falling down porch with these rooms. That was on stamped plans, paid for separately from the arch/eng. firm. This was 3 years ago, I assume the price has escalated since then.
I'm guessing it differs where you are in Colorado (BTW, where are you?). Here in Durango, it's figured differently, but still not cheap. The biggest piece of it here is the "use tax", which is essentially a sales tax on materials. The idea is that if you buy your materials in the city, you have pre-paid your sales tax on materials at a reduced rate, saving you some $$$. Which is nice, given the cost of materials here is nuts, if you can find what you want here.
So for the 3400 sq. ft. house I have coming up, the permit fee and use tax is $8700. Add on $6K for sewer and water, and voila, going on 15 grand before anything happens. Now add the fact there there are no easily buildable lots left in town, period. So, side hill foundation, retainers, etc., voila, $35K for concrete. Ain't it fun?
Formerly BEMW at The High Desert Group LLC
I am in Lake County in Colorado which is kinda between Breckenridge and Vail/Aspen. However, Lake County in not in the same class as them. Our fee right now is based on the UBC code, but we are adopting the IRC as of 1/1/04. This code does not suggest or relate to building permit costs.
I really appreciate all your comments, but it seems that very few of you are faced with a separate "plan review fee". That was my experience back east, the permit fee was all inclusive. Our county commissioners just did away with a proposed "impact fee", thank God. What bugs me the most is that a non-PE is paid to review plans done by a real PE. I had to have my lastest plans stamped by a PE, then the electrical inspector charged $800 to review them. Make sense?
Bob
I was just talking to a building inspector about that yesterday. He agreed that non-PE's doing plan review and often rejecting a specific engineered aspect was absurd.
A client I'll be building a log home for this summer just ponied up a couple grand for additional engineering on a structure that was already an approved design and has been erected elsewhere in our seismic and wind zones. And in addition to the extra engineering costs, to satisfy the codes division, he'll have another couple grand in material and labor costs.
So don't even mention to me the construction of cheap modular homes....how do they get away with their junk?! (rhetorical question).
Notchman, I believe, I heard you from here. The way some people spend other people monies. One project I was involved in (new home), architect out sourced the Electrical, and HVAC designs, at a thousand $ a pop. Then my subs come in and do it there way, I trust my Subs. Hmm, to me , that seems just a little too much like an ol saying, people have a tendency to spend someon else's money a little freer. Though, I'am not quite certain either, in my own mind, which came first the, the chicken or the egg , Jim J