Centennial, Colorado Building Permit Guide

Centennial is one of Colorado’s youngest cities, incorporated in 2001, and its building regulations are unusually explicit about what it has chosen not to adopt. The most consequential of those choices concerns what happens when you disagree with the building official.

The Building Division handles permits, plan review and inspections, with contractor licensing administered under a separate chapter of the municipal code carrying its own classes, insurance requirements and enforcement powers.

This guide covers work inside the Centennial city limits in Arapahoe County. Unincorporated Arapahoe County is permitted by the county, and Aurora and the neighbouring south metro cities permit separately.

What requires a building permit in Centennial?

An exemption from a building permit is never an exemption from zoning, from the adopted energy provisions, or from a trade permit. Confirm scope with the Centennial Building Division before work starts.

Local rules worth knowing

The city has also amended the appeals route out of existence: the building code section establishing a board of appeals is deleted in its entirety, so there is no local administrative body to which a decision of the building official can be appealed. Disputes are resolved with the official or not at all, which changes how a contested interpretation should be handled from the outset

Colorado has no statewide building code for private buildings: each city and county decides whether a code applies and which edition, while the state sets electrical and plumbing rules, a minimum energy code on any update, and a wildfire code for the mapped wildland-urban interface. Building codes in Colorado

Who handles permitting in Centennial?

The Building Division, at the Centennial Civic Center, issues permits, including electrical, gas, mechanical and plumbing permits, reviews plans and inspects work under the city’s building regulations chapter, with contractor licensing and enforcement administered under a separate chapter carrying its own classes and insurance requirements.

Licence classes are named and scoped rather than generic. An asphalt paving licence entitles the holder to contract for and perform asphalt placement, patching, sealing and similar work in the public right of way and on private property. A concrete and form licence covers installing forms, and pouring, finishing and mixing concrete products. The class has to match the work rather than the trade in general.

The stop work power is broader than a defect notice. Where violations occur on a job site holding a valid building, fence, right-of-way, sign or engineering permit, the chief building official may issue a stop work order that remains in effect until the contractor has complied with all rules and regulations set forth in the chapter — not merely until the particular violation is corrected.

In 2025, building permits issued in Centennial authorized 194 new privately owned housing units, all of them single-family homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey.

Permit types

Residential permits

New single-family work carries the site certification requirement for setback verification. The city has also amended several technical provisions: gas piping test pressure is raised from three to 10 pounds per square inch gauge, and sewer depth is specified at 12 inches. Both are local departures from the model text.

How Colorado contractor credentials work

Commercial permits

Commercial work runs through plan review; the city says review takes approximately 5 to 20 business days once it begins, and the fire code is enforced by South Metro Fire Rescue rather than the city. Flood hazard areas are established for the city by amendment with a defined issuance date, and stamped written reports from a Colorado licensed professional engineer are required for certain inspections.

Local licences, state trade registration and design professionals

Three credential layers appear on a Colorado project and they are held by three different bodies: the local general contractor licence and any bond the jurisdiction requires; state registration for the electrical and plumbing contractors, verified with the state boards; and, on commercial and larger residential work, drawings stamped by a Colorado-licensed architect or professional engineer. Confirm what the Centennial Building Division requires for the specific building before filing.

Colorado has no state general contractor licence (cities and counties license builders), while electricians and plumbers are licensed statewide by the State Electrical and Plumbing Boards. Contractor licensing in Colorado

Centennial permit costs and fees

Centennial fees follow the published schedule by permit type and valuation. Insurance is a precondition rather than a fee: every licensed or registered contractor must maintain workers’ compensation and general liability at the published limits throughout.

Because Colorado sets no statewide building fee schedule, two jurisdictions on the same model code can price the same project very differently. The component most often missed is the trade permit: electrical and plumbing permits are separate local permits with their own fees. Ask the Centennial Building Division for the schedule in force on your filing date, and confirm the electrical and plumbing route separately.

Colorado has no state building fee schedule, so fees, including electrical and plumbing permit fees, are set locally wherever a local inspection programme exists. Permit fees in Colorado

Trade permits and who may pull them

Electricians and plumbers are licensed by the state, but the state boards issue trade permits only where a city or county has no inspection programme of its own, and inspect all public school work. Trade permits in Colorado

How to apply for a Centennial building permit

Review, corrections and what actually causes delay

The first cause of delay in Colorado is the wildland-urban interface, where a parcel inside the mapped area brings requirements the building code alone does not describe. The second is the energy code, because the tier a jurisdiction sits on depends on when it last updated rather than on a statewide date. The third is edition drift between neighbouring jurisdictions on the same corridor. There is no statutory review clock for building permits: any timeline you are given is that jurisdiction’s own target. Confirm the checklist with the Centennial Building Division before filing.

Local permit validity is set by Centennial; where the state boards issue a trade permit, it runs 12 months from issue. Permit validity in Colorado

Inspections in Centennial

Standard checkpoints include footing and foundation, framing, rough-in electrical, plumbing and mechanical, insulation and energy compliance, fire systems on commercial work, and final, with a certificate of occupancy before the building is used. Certain inspections require a stamped written report of the results provided to the building official by a Colorado licensed professional engineer.

Do not cover work before the required inspection has been approved. Keep the issued permits, the approved plans and the energy compliance documentation available on site.

Centennial permit search and official resources

Permit records in Colorado are split the way the permits are. Where the Centennial Building Division is the authority for the City of Centennial, it holds the building record — and the electrical and plumbing permits too, because this area runs its own electrical and plumbing inspections (the state boards permit only where no local programme exists). If you are buying, refinancing or renovating, check both, because a clean local record does not mean the trade work was ever permitted.

These are the primary sources behind this guide. Codes, fee schedules and procedures change — confirm the position for your filing date.

• Centennial Municipal Code Chapter 18, building regulations
• Centennial Municipal Code contractor licences
• City of Centennial Building Division
• Colorado electrical and plumbing permits homepage
• House Bill 22-1362, building greenhouse gas emissions

Frequently asked questions

Can I appeal a decision of the building official?

Not locally. The city has amended the building code section establishing a board of appeals by deleting it in its entirety, so there is no local administrative body to hear an appeal from the building official's decision.

What does a new house need that other cities may not require?

A site certification. The city requires one prepared by a State of Colorado registered design professional for setback verification on all new Group R Division 3 occupancies, which covers new single-family dwellings.

What insurance does my contractor need?

Workers compensation as required by state statute in the statutory amounts, and general liability with minimum limits of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, evidenced by a certificate naming the city as holder before the licence or registration issues.

What happens if the city stops my job?

It can stay stopped longer than you expect. Where violations occur on a site holding a valid permit, the chief building official may issue a stop work order that remains in effect until the contractor has complied with all rules and regulations set forth in the chapter.

Which code edition applies?

The edition Centennial adopted, with its amendments: the 2021 International Codes as amended by Ordinance 2023-O-06, the 2023 National Electrical Code and the 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code. Colorado has no statewide building code. For private buildings, state law leaves adoption to local government, so whether a building code applies at all, and which edition, is decided by the municipality or the county — roughly 270 municipalities and 64 counties, each choosing for itself. House Bill 22-1362 does not compel any jurisdiction to update, but when a jurisdiction adopts or updates a building code it must take up at least the specified minimum energy code, so the energy floor arrives with the update rather than on a statewide date; for updates made on or after 1 July 2026 that floor is the state’s Model Low Energy and Carbon Code. Where the energy provisions or the state model codes conflict with the Colorado plumbing code or the National Electrical Code, the plumbing code or the electrical code prevails.

Who licenses my electrician?

The state. The trades are the part Colorado does decide centrally. The State Electrical Board and the State Plumbing Board issue permits and inspect only where a city or county has no electrical and plumbing inspection programme of its own. This area has one, so the trade permits are issued locally; the state still inspects electrical, plumbing and gas work in public schools. Electricians and plumbers are licensed by those state boards and the licences are statewide, while general contractors are licensed by municipalities and counties, often with a surety bond. It is a violation of state law for anyone other than the homeowner, who is not a registered electrical or plumbing contractor, to install that work, and the homeowner exception covers only work you do yourself on a home you live in that is not for sale or rent.

Simplify Centennial permitting with Alliance Permitting

With no local appeal route, the interpretation has to be right the first time. That is argued at submission, not afterwards.

Trusted by leading builders, developers, and national contractors — 21+ years of filing in the jurisdictions we write about.

Contractors and builders choose Alliance for Centennial because the work is done by people who have stood at the counter:

• 21+ years of filing, so the trade authority is settled before the application goes in
• We confirm which edition the jurisdiction adopted and when it last updated
• Local general contractor licence and state trade registration both verified, in different places
• Wildland-urban interface position checked against the state map before the design is fixed
• Two inspection queues sequenced so a cover-up never waits on the wrong inspector

Alliance Permitting is a permit documentation and submission company in Colorado. We prepare your paperwork, file it correctly and coordinate with the permitting authority through issuance. We are not a contractor and we do not perform licensed plan review or inspections; that work stays with your licensed team and the jurisdiction.

This guide is provided by Alliance Permitting for general information about Centennial permitting. Requirements, fees, and procedures change; confirm details with the permitting authority before relying on them.