Frequently Asked Questions

Accessory Living Quarters

Site Plans (coming soon)

Greenhouses

Carports

Agricultural Exemption (A-35 Only)

Code Enforcement

Shipping Containers (coming soon)

Collateral (coming soon)

Are signs allowed in the right of way?

What are the regulations for short term rental properties in the County?

Legislative vs. Quasi-Judicial

How do I know if I am located within unincorporated El Paso County?- Use the El Paso County Assessor Property Search. to find a property by parcel, address, or Owner name. Once the property/parcel is located, the “Public Record Property Information” page will be displayed. Scroll down to the Tax Entity and Levy Information section. A parcel is located within unincorporated El Paso County if no taxing entities begin with the words “City of” or “Town of” followed by name of an incorporated city/town.

Visit the Code Enforcement page for more information.

Early Assistance (EA) meetings are designed to provide applicants with the information needed to complete a development application process. Typically, EA Meetings are necessary for projects that require a hearing before the Planning Commission and / or Board of County Commissioners such as a zone change, subdivision, or variance of use. A team consisting of a review engineer, stormwater engineer, and a planner will be assigned to a request for an EA meeting. EA Meetings last approximately one (1) hour, can be held virtual or in-person, and have a fee of $427.

Recordings of each EA meeting are uploaded into the associated EA file in EDARP.

You may apply for an EA meeting through EDARP. Not sure if you need an Early Assistance Meeting? Email the Planner of the Day at dsd-pod@elpasoco.com

All divisions of land resulting in any property of less than 35 acres qualifies as a subdivision in El Paso County. Examples include (but are not limited to):

• Splitting a parcel of land in half (or into multiple lots)
• Removing a portion of property from a larger property
• Deeding off land to another owner

Proposals requesting subdivision, altering lot lines, or combining property within unincorporated El Paso County require an Early Assistance (EA) meeting to initiate the process.

Subdivisions are required to go through the public hearing process which includes hearings before the Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioners. The Planning Commission makes a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners. The Board of County Commissioners makes the final decision to approve or deny the request based on the criteria outlined in the Land Development Code. Subdivision applications generally take several months to over a year to complete depending on the complexity of the request.

There are two different application types to request relief from a dimensional standard. The first, and more streamlined process, is administrative relief. This application type generally allows for approval of a 20% reduction in the dimensional standards. The second is a dimensional variance before the Board of Adjustment. This application type allows for approval of any requested reduction in the dimensional standards but is unlikely to be approved without the applicant demonstrating that there is a hardship in place, or a reason why the land will not allow for the standard to be met.

• Administrative Relief

The application must qualify for and meet the criteria within the Section 5.5.1 of the Land Development Code. This is an administrative approval process which generally takes 1-2 months to approve, depending on the number of submittals required to resolve comments. The application fee for Administrative Relief is $587. The administrative relief application may not be submitted without initial discussions with planning staff to determine that your specific proposal qualifies for such an application. If you wish to learn more about the process or wish to move forward with making a submission please email us at dsd-pod@elpasoco.com and you will be connected to a member of our planning staff.

• Board of Adjustment

Alternatively, if more than 20% relief is required in order to make reasonable use of the property, then a Board of Adjustment application is required. Please note that it is required that a Board of Adjustment application meets all criteria outlined in Section 5.5.2 of the Code, which is more stringent than the administrative relief criteria (particularly demonstrating undue hardship, like topography). Please also note that as this is not an administrative process, approval by the Board of Adjustment is not guaranteed and that application fees are non-refundable. The application fee for Board of Adjustment is $1037.00. You must begin the Board of Adjustment process with an Early Assistance meeting (EA). The fee for an EA meeting is $437.00. If you wish to learn more about the process, please send us an email at dsd-pod@elpasoco.com and you will be connected to a member of our planning staff.

Fences may be up to seven (7) feet in height. Any fence over seven (7) feet is considered a structure and will need a building permit from the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department. Any wall that retains surcharge (pressure) requires engineering approval and a building permit no matter what the height.

Fences on corner lots must be shorter if there is a corner easement for sight visibility for the road.

Fences located in the front yard setback that are more than 25% opaque cannot exceed 30 inches in height.

You may put a fence on your property line, even though property lines are frequently the middle of an easement (most easements have the same amount of property set aside on each side of a lot line). If access to an easement is needed by the easement holder, the easement holder may remove or move your fence and is not required to put it back.

For more information on fencing, contact us at 719-520-6300 or plnweb@elpasoco.com.

Yes. In the Sheetz case, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the principles of “essential nexus” and “rough proportionality” first established in their Nollan and Dolan cases apply to legislatively-adopted land use permit exactions, including traffic impact fees. The Nollan and Dolan principles have served as the foundation of the Road Impact Fee Program since its creation. The Program imposes a fee on land use approvals that have been determined to cause an increase in traffic. That fee is used to reimburse developers and the County when they build road improvements that increase the capacity for traffic on the regional roadway system. This is the “essential nexus” between the fee and the impacts it helps to mitigate. The amount of the fee is based on an analysis of the number of vehicle trips that different classes of land uses add to the road system, as determined primarily by relying on the data collected and published in the ITE Trip Generation Manual published by the Institute of Transportation Engineers. This analysis supports the “rough proportionality” between the impact created and the fee charged.