By Clayton Chaney
Staff Writer
Archuleta County Director of Development Services Pamela Flowers has proposed a new fee schedule for building permits in the county.
Flowers described her proposal as “a slight uptick in building permit fees.”
At a work session held by the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) on Feb. 9, Flowers presented her proposal on increasing the county’s building fees, specifically for residential buildings.
Currently, the county calculates building fees based off of the square footage of the home. The county currently values homes at $78.35 per square foot. The county then uses a valuation table to determine the total fees.
Flowers used an example of a 1,500-square-foot home to show how much the building fees would be under the current system.
A 1,500-square-foot home is valued at $118,000, which lands in the $100,001-$500,000 category on the valuation table. The fees for a home that falls in this category start at $993.75 for the first $100,000 of valuation. A cost of $5.60 is then added for each additional $1,000 of valuation.
So, the total building fees for a 1,500-square-foot home under the current system comes out to $1,094.55.
Flowers presented two proposals.
The first one included a 10 percent increase in the valuation of the square footage of a home, raising it from $78.35 to $86.19 per square foot along with a 10 percent increase in fees for homes that are valued from $100,001 to $500,000, raising it from $993.75 to $1,093, with $6 being charged for each additional $1,000 of valuation.
This would raise the valuation of a 1,500-square-foot home to $130,000 and the total building fees would then come out to $1,273.
The second proposal put forward by Flowers included a 25 percent increase in the valuation of the square footage of a home, raising it to $97.94 per square foot.
This would raise the valuation of a 1,500-square-foot home to $147,000.
Flowers’ second proposal also included a 15 percent increase in the fee for a home that is valued between $100,001 and $500,000, along with $6 being charged for each additional $1,000 of valuation.
This would raise the base fee to $1,100 for a 1,500-square-foot house. The total building fees would come out to $1,382 for a home of this size.
Flowers provided comparisons of building fees for a 1,500-square-foot home in other Colorado counties.
According to Flowers, the cost of building permits for a home of that size in La Plata County is $2,100, in Chaffee County it is $1,428.51, in Park County it is $1,725, and in Rio Grande County it is $1,094.
Commissioner Ronnie Maez asked, “Are we making more money than we should on this?”
Flowers explained that with either of her proposals, the county would be able to cover the costs on its end to process building permits.
In a later interview, Flowers indicated that a resolution on the matter will be presented to the BoCC at the next regular board meeting, to be held on Feb. 16 at 1:30 p.m.
The meeting will be held virtually via Zoom. Please contact County Administrative Assistant Jamie Jones at jjones@archuletacounty.org or 264-8300 to receive login information.
