Routt County has a single building authority. The Routt County Regional Building Department, at 136 6th Street in Steamboat Springs, issues building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing and gas permits for unincorporated Routt County and for Steamboat Springs, Hayden, Oak Creek and Yampa. Applications and plans go in through CityView, the plan review fee of 65% of the permit fee is paid at application, and new construction is reviewed within 10 working days.
What requires a permit in Routt County?
All building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, gas, demolition (de-construction), solar, sign, and pool, spa and hot tub permits go to the Regional Building Department. Its Work Exempt From Permits handout lists what a homeowner can do without one.
Exempt at a house
- One-story detached sheds, playhouses or open pergolas of up to 120 sq ft and a 10 ft plate height, with no water, sewer or gas and no service panel
- Fences not over 6 ft high
- Retaining walls not over 4 ft from the bottom of the footing, unless supporting a surcharge
- Sidewalks and driveways
- Painting, papering, tiling, carpeting, cabinets and countertops
- Detached decks of up to 200 sq ft, no more than 30 inches above grade, that do not serve the required exit door
- Replacing deck boards with boards of the same or greater thickness
- Opening up less than 96 sq ft of wall, floor or ceiling surface in total for minor repairs
Still needs a permit
- Anything larger than the exemptions, including sheds over 120 sq ft
- New buildings, additions and alterations
- Re-roofing and window or door replacement
- Electrical, plumbing, mechanical or gas work that is not itself exempt, even in an exempt building
- Pools, spas and hot tubs
- Solar and EV chargers
- De-construction or demolition
- Setting a manufactured or factory-built home
The handout warns that an exemption from the building permit can still leave planning approval to get. Agricultural buildings have their own rules, described under local details.
Who issues building permits in Routt County?
The Regional Building Department provides full building department services to rural Routt County, the City of Steamboat Springs, the Towns of Hayden, Oak Creek and Yampa and the county’s school districts. Todd Carr is the Building Official. No municipality in the county issues its own building permits, but each adopts the codes by its own ordinance and adds its own taxes or review fees.
Short on time to read all of this?
Get a free quote →| Place | Who issues building permits | Portal and local add-ons |
|---|---|---|
| Unincorporated Routt County | Routt County Regional Building Department | County CityView portal; $75 County Planning review fee |
| Steamboat Springs | Routt County Regional Building Department, which keeps 75% of permit and plan review fees and passes 25% to the City | The City’s own CityView portal; City use tax and excise tax |
| Hayden | Routt County Regional Building Department | County CityView portal; Town permit fee of 15% of the department’s permit fee and a 2% Town use tax |
| Oak Creek | Routt County Regional Building Department | County CityView portal; $50 Town plan review fee |
| Yampa | Routt County Regional Building Department | County CityView portal; 2% Town use tax and a $75 Town planning review fee |
The office is in the Routt County Courthouse Annex, 136 6th Street, Suite 201, Steamboat Springs, open Monday to Friday from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm, on 970-870-5566.
CityView, contractors and owner applicants
The department runs two CityView platforms. Property inside Steamboat Springs uses the City’s portal; unincorporated land, Hayden, Oak Creek and Yampa use the County portal. An account is needed on the right one before you apply.
Paper drawings are not accepted. Staff can scan sheets up to 11 by 17 inches at the counter and will key in an application for someone who is not comfortable with a computer, but larger plans have to arrive as electronic files. PDFs must be unsecured, under 50 MB, and named after the submittal requirement they answer.
Contractors: a contractor applying for a permit must hold an ICC contractor certification or a B.E.S.T. card for the trade, register with the department and carry commercial general liability insurance of at least $1,000,000. State-licensed electricians and plumbers are exempt from the certification and can apply for their own trade permits.
Owners: a property owner may be the permit applicant and do the work only on a residential property that is their primary dwelling, with proof, using the department’s Property Owner Permit Application Form and Legal Agreement. Owners of second homes and of commercial buildings have to pass the contractor exam for that class of work first.
Routt County permit fees
The department’s fee schedule applies the same valuation table everywhere it works. The valuation of work to be permitted has to include all labor and materials for the building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing work.
Not sure this scope needs a permit?
Get a free quote →| Valuation of work to be permitted | Building permit fee |
|---|---|
| $1 to $500 | $21.15 |
| $500.01 to $2,000 | $21.15 for the first $500, plus $2.75 for each additional $100 or fraction |
| $2,000.01 to $25,000 | $62.33 for the first $2,000, plus $12.60 for each additional $1,000 or fraction |
| $25,000.01 to $50,000 | $352.13 for the first $25,000, plus $9.09 for each additional $1,000 or fraction |
| $50,000.01 to $100,000 | $579.38 for the first $50,000, plus $6.30 for each additional $1,000 or fraction |
| $100,000.01 to $500,000 | $894.38 for the first $100,000, plus $5.04 for each additional $1,000 or fraction |
| $500,000.01 to $1,000,000 | $2,910.38 for the first $500,000, plus $4.28 for each additional $1,000 or fraction |
| Over $1,000,000 | $5,047.88 for the first $1,000,000, plus $3.29 for each additional $1,000 or fraction |
The plan review fee is 65% of the permit fee and has to be paid with the application, before staff verify the submittal. County use tax applies in every jurisdiction at 1% of half the total valuation. A $400,000 house in the unincorporated county therefore pays a $2,406.38 permit fee, $1,564.15 for plan review, $2,000 of county use tax and the $75 Planning review fee.
| Permit or charge | Fee |
|---|---|
| Stand-alone electrical, plumbing, mechanical or gas permit, residential | $100 |
| Stand-alone electrical, plumbing, mechanical or gas permit, commercial | $125 |
| Residential re-roofing permit | No more than $300, plus a $25 plan review fee |
| Commercial re-roofing permit | No more than $500, plus a $25 plan review fee |
| Window or door replacement permit | No more than $300, plus a $25 plan review fee |
| EV charger permit | $100 residential or $125 commercial, plus a $35 plan review fee |
| Above-ground pool or hot tub kit at a home | $100 |
| Setting a factory-built or manufactured home | $400 |
| De-construction or demolition permit | $125 |
| Re-inspection | $65 |
| Emergency inspection after business hours | $125 |
Trade, pool and EV charger work covered by an issued building permit pays no separate fee when its labor and materials were included in the building permit valuation. Inside Steamboat Springs the City adds use tax of 4.5% on half the valuation and an excise tax of 1.2% of the total valuation. Water and sewer plant investment fees are charged by the city, town or water district, not the Building Department.
Rather talk it over?
Call 1-855-478-4290 →Trade permits and septic in Routt County
Routt County is one of the Colorado counties with its own electrical and plumbing inspection programme, so these permits are not bought from the State. The Regional Building Department issues and inspects electrical, plumbing, mechanical and gas piping or tank permits in all five jurisdictions, at $100 for residential alteration work and $125 for commercial when the job is not part of a building permit.
Engineered electrical plans are required for new commercial buildings, commercial additions and alterations, tenant finishes and multi-family housing, and for a new home with a service of 400 amps or larger. Mechanical and plumbing or fuel gas plans are required on commercial work. A solar permit has to show the point of disconnection.
Septic systems are permitted and inspected by Routt County Environmental Health (970-870-5588), which shares Suite 201 with the Building Department and also serves the Town of Hayden. Environmental Health is one of the agencies every unincorporated building permit is routed to.
Routt County submittals and plan review times
The department manages the whole review: it takes the application in CityView and distributes the documents to County Planning and Zoning, Public Works, Environmental Health, GIS, the rural fire department and the utilities.
Submittals
- Soils report, stamped, for all new construction and additions
- Site plan for new buildings, additions and changes of occupancy
- Utility plan showing existing and proposed utilities and where they enter the building
- Structural plans that reference the soils report and the local ground snow load
- Architectural plans with code analysis, floor plans, sections, elevations and energy code details
- Heat load calculations for new buildings and additions
- Civil plans for all new commercial projects
- State-approved plans for a manufactured or factory-built building
Published review times
- 1 to 3 business days: de-construction, residential roofing, siding, and window and door replacement
- 5 days: interior renovations with no change to the footprint, and exterior decks without roofs
- Up to 10 working days: new construction and additions
- Up to 15 days: a new commercial building over 10,000 sq ft
- 5 to 7 business days: resubmittals and addenda
Rather not deal with the Routt County building department?
Get a free quote →A home needs an architect or engineer when the soils report shows swell potential with a minimum dead load above 500 lb per sq ft, or when basement or retaining walls are taller than 4 ft and hold back more than 4 ft of soil. Stamped truss drawings are a deferred submittal due before the roof framing inspection, special inspection reports are due before the inspections that depend on them, and the blower door test result is due before the Certificate of Occupancy.
How to apply: 6 steps in Routt County
The Steamboat Springs CityView portal for property inside the city; the County portal for everything else.
All of Routt County is a case study zone, so take the ground snow load for the parcel from the department’s online map by PIN or address.
A registered, certified contractor, or an owner with the primary-dwelling form and legal agreement.
One PDF per submittal requirement: soils report, site plan, utility plan, structural and architectural plans.
65% of the permit fee, due at application. The CityView fee estimator gives the figure, but town taxes and fire district fees may have to be added by hand.
Request each inspection in CityView by midnight the day before.
Routt County inspections
Inspection requests are made online in the CityView portal, or in person at the office. The department does not accept voicemail requests. An online request is accepted up to midnight on the day before the inspection date, and it must include your name and phone number in the notes field, along with gate codes or access details.
Inspectors work Monday to Friday and carry out inspections between 7:30 am and 3:00 pm. A re-inspection costs $65 when the work is not ready or earlier corrections have not been made, and an emergency inspection after hours costs $125.
The department’s Required Inspection Types Policy lists the inspections for each kind of permit, and its roofing policy covers the inspections on a re-roof.
Local Routt County details that matter
Snow, wind and frost: ground snow load varies by site and comes from the department’s map. Buildings are designed for a 115 mph ultimate 3-second gust, and frost depth is 48 inches across the county.
Agricultural buildings: only unincorporated Routt County exempts them. A sole-use agricultural building is fully exempt from a building permit if it is open-sided with no enclosed walls, or enclosed and 600 sq ft or less, with no sanitary connections in either case. A larger enclosed one needs a permit with a full structural design; the agricultural foundation-only permit costs $150 plus a $25 planning review fee and carries no county use tax. Trade permits still apply to any wiring, plumbing or gas work.
Want this handled start to finish?
Get a free quote →Wildfire code: the department has published its 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code adoption policy and site plan requirements, and portions of the 2021 International Wildland-Urban Interface Code were adopted with the 2021 codes.
Energy rules: the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code applies with local prescriptive tables, together with the Colorado Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code.
Grade and fill: the department administers grade and fill permit applications for Hayden and Steamboat Springs for a $65 administration fee but does not review them.
Old permits: permit records from 1973 to 1999 are searchable online through the department’s historical records archive.
Colorado building code
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
Official Routt County resources
- Routt County Regional Building Department
- How to apply for a permit in CityView
- CityView portal for unincorporated Routt County, Hayden, Oak Creek and Yampa
- CityView portal for the City of Steamboat Springs
- Regional Building Department permit fee schedule and policies (PDF)
- Unincorporated Routt County permitting and plan review process (PDF)
- Work Exempt From Permits (PDF)
- Routt County building codes and policies
- Inspection scheduling and requirements
- Contractor registration and certification
- Property owner permit applicant information
- Building permit requirements for agriculture
- Routt County Environmental Health: septic permits
Inspections are where schedules slip.
Get a free quote →Routt County permit FAQs
Who issues building permits in Routt County?
The Routt County Regional Building Department, 136 6th Street, Suite 201, Steamboat Springs, 970-870-5566. It serves the unincorporated county and Steamboat Springs, Hayden, Oak Creek and Yampa.
Does Steamboat Springs have its own building department?
No. The Regional Building Department issues permits inside the city too, through a separate City CityView portal, and shares 25% of the fees with the City.
How much is a building permit in Routt County?
It follows the valuation table. For $400,000 of work the permit fee is $2,406.38 and the plan review fee, 65% of that, is $1,564.15, plus county use tax of 1% on half the valuation and any town charges.
How long does plan review take?
The department publishes 1 to 3 business days for roofing, siding and window permits, 5 days for interior renovations, up to 10 working days for new construction and additions, and up to 15 days for a new commercial building over 10,000 sq ft.
Do I need a permit for a shed, fence or deck in Routt County?
Not for a one-story detached shed of up to 120 sq ft without plumbing, gas or a service panel, a fence up to 6 ft, or a detached deck of up to 200 sq ft that is no more than 30 inches above grade.
Are electrical and plumbing permits issued by the State?
No. The Regional Building Department issues and inspects them: $100 for residential alteration work that is not part of a building permit.
Can I pull a permit as the owner?
Yes, for a residential property that is your primary dwelling, with the department’s owner application form and legal agreement. Second homes and commercial buildings need a certified contractor or a passed contractor exam.
How do I request an inspection in Routt County?
In CityView, up to midnight the day before. Voicemail requests are not accepted.
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More Colorado permitting guides
This guide is provided by Alliance Permitting for general information about Routt County permitting. Requirements, fees, and procedures change; confirm details with the permitting authority before relying on them.