Do I need a permit to build a garage in Denver? Zoning, building and sewer permits, fees and the old garage

The three permits, and what else can apply

From Community Planning and Development's Residential Garages page (read 26 October 2026):

The 500-square-foot waste line catches most two-car garages, so ask your builder whether the plan and deposit are in the price.

What to upload

The City lists what gets a garage through all three reviews at once:

1. Survey, only if building within three feet of a property line: a boundary survey for vacant land, or an improvement survey where structures exist.
2. Site plan to scale with a north arrow: lot lines, streets and alleys, existing structures and driveways, the new garage with its height and distances to lot lines; for SUDP, water, storm and sanitary sewer lines; any new driveway's width and material.
3. Elevations with dimensions (Denver publishes a template and a sample site plan and elevations).
4. Building plans: stud, rafter or truss sizes and spacing, roof span, foundation or slab details, shear walls and anchor bolts, headers, fire-rated wall and projection details, and labeled exterior materials with manufacturer cut sheets.

Apply in e-permits: Apply for a Permit, Development Services, "building log", classification Single Family/Duplex Residential.

What it costs

Denver's building permit fee table (read 23 October 2026), on the job's valuation:

Worked through for the usual Denver garage at about $30,000: $220 + 5 × $8 = $260, plus $130 plan review, about $390 for the building permit. Zoning, SUDP, demolition and trade permits are billed separately, reinspections are $100 an hour, and cards carry a 2.5% service fee. Denver values jobs from ICC building valuation data, so its figure can exceed your contract.

Who can pull it

A licensed contractor. Denver licenses building contractors through supervisor certificates; a garage builder for a house needs at least the Residential Contractor Class C, "To erect, add to, alter, or repair one- and two-family dwellings" (Construction Certificates). See Denver contractor license lookup.

You. The garage page says "Homeowners can apply for building permits without a contractor" if they meet Denver's homeowner permit rules: a single-family home (not a duplex, townhome, condo or ADU) you own and live in, photo ID matching the Assessor's record, a year's occupancy after the work, and a City exam before any electrical, plumbing or mechanical work you do yourself.

What 989 Denver garage permits show

Garage prices in Denver sit in a tight band: the middle half of builders usually file between $21,815 and $33,115, so a quote far outside it is worth a second look at the scope. Five firms hold 42.8% of garage permits, while 55.4% of firms filed just one. 22 firms with five or more garage permits filed none in the last year of the data, so check a builder's recent permits in e-permits. Prices by home value: Denver garage cost; counts by year: Denver permit statistics.

See every Denver garage builder by permits filed →

Related

Building an ADU over or beside the garage: Denver ADU rules. Tearing down the old one: Denver demolition review. Rules elsewhere: do I need a permit for a garage; national prices: detached garage cost. Past permits on an address: Denver building permit search.

What this does not tell you

Denver has not recorded final dates for most permits since 2020, so we cannot say how many garage permits were finished or how long they took; ask for the final inspection result before the last payment. Denver publishes no electrical permits, so a garage's wiring is not in our file. Filed values are the applicant's figure.