Aurora Building Permit Timelines & Delays

The City posts 21 working days for its first code review of single-family home plans and 2 working days to review corrections, 23 working days in all, which it rounds to “4+ weeks”; commercial and multifamily plans are posted at 26 plus 2, or 28 working days, “5+ weeks” (City of Aurora, Development Review Timelines). Tenant finishes are posted at 4 working days in all and limited-scope plans at 9. These are city review times only: they leave out the time you spend making corrections, and a building permit cannot be issued until any other development review the project needs is complete. The City posts 27 to 75 working days for planning application review. We found no published figures on how often the City meets these times.

Submit building plans through the Aurora4Biz plan review portal linked from the City’s Plan Review page, and request inspections through your Aurora4Biz account or by calling 303.739.7420 (City of Aurora, Building Division). Development applications, civil plans and tap applications go through a separate portal, DevPortal (City of Aurora, Development Center). Plan review and permit fees come from the City’s fee schedule, and its online fee calculator gives only an estimate. A building permit also carries a sales and use tax deposit of 3.75% of the total construction materials cost, plus an Arapahoe County Open Space Use Tax deposit of 0.25% for properties in Arapahoe County (City of Aurora, Development Fees Checklist).

Colorado law requires Aurora to allow an accessory dwelling unit with a single-family home and to review it administratively, but the City is still rewriting its own rules, so confirm what applies to your lot with the City before you design one. The state’s accessory dwelling unit law requires cities of 1,000 or more residents within a metropolitan planning organization’s area to allow one ADU as an accessory use to a single-family detached home wherever such homes are allowed, through an administrative approval process, from June 30, 2025, and the state Department of Local Affairs lists Aurora among the cities that must comply (HB24-1152; Colorado Department of Local Affairs). In July 2026, Aurora’s council directed staff to draft an ordinance that would allow one ADU on most single-family detached lots (Sentinel Colorado, 2026).

New electrical permit applications have been reviewed and inspected under the 2026 National Electrical Code since August 1, 2026; permits pulled from existing single-family master plans are processed under it automatically, and multifamily master plans must be revised to show compliance before more permits are pulled (City of Aurora, Building Division). Aurora adopts the electrical code at the same time as the State of Colorado. Two state laws shape Aurora’s next building code update. Since July 1, 2026, any Colorado city or county that updates a building code must adopt and enforce an energy code that performs at least as well as the state’s model low energy and carbon code (HB22-1362; Colorado Energy Office). The state lists Aurora among the cities that must, by December 1, 2027, allow multifamily buildings of up to five stories that meet set conditions to use a single exit (HB25-1273; Colorado Department of Local Affairs).