Adventure Tool Co. Mountain Development Shop - Colorado Style

[BritKLR]

Greetings -

A little backstory. In 2012 I retired after 25 years from the greatest job in world. My wife and I moved to our Colorado home and started our gear business. Over the next several years I learned a great deal about living in Colorado Rockies and how the high altitude (8300 feet) and weather can beat up your vehicles. We decided to have a building done to not only store our vehicles but, also give me a place to continue the development of our gear and work on custom projects......so, the multi-year odyssey of building in one of the most controlled, expensive, bureaucrat, but beautiful places in Colorado began....welcome to unincorporated Boulder County, Colorado.



We live 20 miles up the mountains from the City of Boulder and within the old ghost townsite of Tungsten on some acreage just outside the small mining town of Nederland, Co. We are surrounded by National Forest and public open space. Boulder does a great job of acquiring and controlling lands and therefore controls growth and new construction. Due to this location we are governed by the County and their codes. In order to build anything you have to complete a Site Plan Review/Waiver before even applying for a building permit.

The first step is determining what size you can build. It’s call the 125% rule. It basically works this way...the County takes the square footage of your house and any decks, carports, outbuildings, etc totals it up and averages it against all the other structures in your area. They then add the 125% over the average and deduct that from your square footage and that gives you the maximum square footage you can build. In our case it was 1500 sq ft. It doesn’t matter how much acreage you have or how much you want a bigger building, that’s the max size. Remember this cause it’ll come back on us later.

Next, we knew we had a semi-flat area in the middle of our property from old tungsten mining activity. But, BC initially wouldn’t approve the location due to they preferred the shop to be closer to the main house. After some negotiations we were allowed to place it in the original position. This required that number of trees be dropped and cleared.

TBC....

 

[BritKLR]

In order to haul trees, slash out of the forest and remove the stumps my lovely wife got me this little helper for Christmas. Finding a unmolested Kubota B-26 TLB in the Rockies was impossible. We had to drive to Salina, KS to pick this one up.

 

[BritKLR]

Clearing the pad has taken quite some time. If you move more then 50 sq yards of dirt you need a permit. If the slash yard (tree recycling area) is closed then you need to store the trees and slash till the following year or burn them. Burning requires a Burn Permit with the approval/notification of the local rural fire department, county Sheriff, Land Use Department. You have to complete a worksheet justifying your burn versus recycling, provide photographs of your burn pile so as to show that is built correctly and does not contain any unapproved objects, there has to be at least 6 inches of snow on the ground, no wind and fire suppression options.

But it is very relaxing once it’s going!

 

[BritKLR]

Our property sits in a saddle between two ridges. In the late 1800’s on the top of these ridges sat several mine heads. At the bottom of property sat several other structures. When tungsten became valuable in the early 1900’s the town of Tungsten blew up to meet the need. We’re lucky that we don’t have the hazmat mess of gold mining but, I still find all sorts of mining artifacts.

The photo of the miners in front of the mine head is what used to sit just across from our shop site.

And then you have the “locals” always sniffing around......

 

[Bighead38]

Looks like this is going to be a cool thread.

What did you retire from that you consider it the greatest job?

 

[BritKLR]

Looks like this is going to be a cool thread.

What did you retire from that you consider it the greatest job?

Thanks!

Retired out of the Midwest from law enforcement. Retired as a Division Commander over Investigations, Narcotics, Intel, Cyber Crimes Task Force, Drug Task Force, SWAT, Training, RCFL, other secret squirrel stuff and then did 3 additional years as one of the last Town Marshals in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The best jobs ever due to the men and women I got to work with and the communities we had the privilege to serve.

 

[BritKLR]

Ok, so what are we building? Another long story....we wanted a building that would look at home in the mountains and blend with the mining history. I’ve always liked the Monitor Barn style of building. So, the first issue was to have it designed to fit the 1500 sq ft dimensions. Second, we needed three bays. One to store our cars and motos. A large center bay for a vehicle lift and to store our 4wd Tiger camper and then a third bay for a workshop and design/development area for my sewing equipment.

We started working with a engineer to design an open floor plan building versus the stalls floor plan that most Monitor barns have. We quickly realized that due to fire code we could not have a wooden exterior so, we planned to go with Core 10 raw/rust able steel exterior and a metal roof. Forest fires and fire mitigation is a big deal in the mountains.....more on that later.

 

[readhead]

I build barns down in Durango and the surrounding area. That is a great design for added room above in the center bay. Save some money and use cold rolled on the siding and cor-10 on the roof.

How did you find the most restrictive county when there are several counties that don’t require a building permit at all? Looks like you have a great place there and I wish you great success.

 

[Snip]

Ah, yes to live and try to do almost anything in "The Peoples Republic of Boulder". I go thru often during the summer months. About my favorite place in the county to stop and enjoy was the old Millsite bar near Ward, but it has closed, haven't found a suitable replacement yet. However I will say there is some beautiful country to ride thru in BC.
I do like the building style you are going with, looking forward to following your build and I hope it goes smoothly for you guys.Your place and views are amazing.

 

[BritKLR]

I build barns down in Durango and the surrounding area. That is a great design for added room above in the center bay. Save some money and use cold rolled on the siding and cor-10 on the roof.

How did you find the most restrictive county when there are several counties that don’t require a building permit at all? Looks like you have a great place there and I wish you great success.

Thanks!

How we came about retiring in BC is a funny story. We spent about three years looking for some mountain property but, since my wife is a writer and needed to be close to DIA, a University and Library system it narrowed us a bit. The nice thing about Nederland is it’s in the mountains and has all the amenities (groceries, restaurants, breweries, hardware, etc...) with all the research we did I never knew or guessed BC land use would be this restrictive.

 

[BritKLR]

Ah, yes to live and try to do almost anything in "The Peoples Republic of Boulder". I go thru often during the summer months. About my favorite place in the county to stop and enjoy was the old Millsite bar near Ward, but it has closed, haven't found a suitable replacement yet. However I will say there is some beautiful country to ride thru in BC.
I do like the building style you are going with, looking forward to following your build and I hope it goes smoothly for you guys.Your place and views are amazing.

Thanks..... but, the bumper road of permitting hasn’t started yet.

 

[BritKLR]

So, with the clearing of the site came the need to remove trees, lots of trees and with trees came digging out their stumps. This was a multi summer project. I’m also keeping some of the straighter, longer tree for a future writers log cabin for my wife.

 

[BritKLR]

And more winter slash pile burns.....

 

[pi_guy]

Our property sits in a saddle between two ridges. In the late 1800’s on the top of these ridges sat several mine heads. At the bottom of property sat several other structures. When tungsten became valuable in the early 1900’s the town of Tungsten blew up to meet the need. We’re lucky that we don’t have the hazmat mess of gold mining but, I still find all sorts of mining artifacts.

The photo of the miners in front of the mine head is what used to sit just across from our shop site.

And then you have the “locals” always sniffing around......

Talk to a Long Islander about the dangers of tungsten waste issues, there was a big super fund clean up due to it.

 

[BritKLR]

Talk to a Long Islander about the dangers of tungsten waste issues, there was a big super fund clean up due to it.

Interesting. Due to the gold mining history in Boulder County I’m familiar with the hazmat issues related to the processing of the gold ore (acids, cyanide, etc) and the tailings (part of the closing documents when purchasing land in rural Colorado) but I’m not familiar with similar issues regarding Tungsten other then the waste products from mining and raw exposure of materials in the tails. I’m I missing something?

 

[BritKLR]

Now the other shoe to drop.....

After a couple years of saving for the building, clearing the site and fire mitigation around the entire property (forest fire hit 1/2 mile from our property, destroyed 60 homes and hundreds of acres) it was time to file the Site Plan Review Wavier (SPRW) for our 1500 sq ft. building. I reach out to our assigned BC land use project manager and get the necessary application and start getting the support documents.

Keep in mind the SPRW is only the process that says you can build, that building on your property. It is not a building permit. That’s a separate process. The SPRW requires 26 different pieces of documentation and information, plus it is sent to all your neighbors for their input. The final document is 32 pages long and the fee was $618.00 and takes 4-6 weeks to review by 7 different County agencies.

Some of the things they require are:
Application
125% of median size approval calculations
Vicinity and location maps (risk of denial if building can be seen from public lands)
Current deed
Property access
Verification of legal building lot
Well certificate
Septic system certification
Flood plan approval
Historical review ($20)
Fact sheet
Elevation drawings
Site plan
Excavation calculations
Color samples
Dark skies lighting plan
LIDAR scan of property for historical sites or mine hazards

Once approved, you receive a 40 page document telling you that your approved to move to permitting.....as long as you meet the following:

Fire mitigation assessment of the entire property
Ingress/egress for fire equipment
Revegetation plan and certification ($10k refundable deposit)
Recycling plan for construction debris
Porta John certification for construction crew
Affidavit stating the garage can never be used (perpetual to the property)as a residence.
Pay the building permit fees approx $1500......

Oh, I forgot to mention that during the time from our first inquiry to build to the time we started the SPRW a wealthy individual built a million dollar vacation mini house in our area......nice family, they come out once or twice a year from the north east. But, the mini house sq ft dropped our 125% median sq ft from 1500 sq ft to 1027 sq ft! Yep, we lost 400 sq ft over night! All my paperwork got kicked back. We lost a couple of thousand dollars in engineering and architectural work and we could no longer build the monitor barn garage as designed.

After a few hard conversations with the county and few stiff drinks we started over again and decided to go with a traditional 3 bay garage with loft. Still covered in rusted metal and a dark green metal roof. I resubmitted all new SPRW and we recently received the approval for the new building and are on schedule form permitting and the summer mountain building season to build June 1, 2020!

Just to put a smile on your face after reading this, here’s what we’re building it for!

 

[964haus]

Welcome and looking forward to the build!
Never heard of 125% rule (only in F1 back in the day...) and it seems a really antiquated way of doing things. Would be much simpler to use an FSR/site coverage calc, but that's just me. I guess there was no 'grandfather' clause that allowed you to continue with the original size as at the time you first talked to them, it was the permitted size? That's what happens here.

As far as the other things - and at risk for showing my Canadian colours here - I don't actually find the other items all that restrictive. Yes, seems a lot more than most development projects I read about here, but if you break it all down, I think it's pretty reasonable.

Love your toys and really looking forward to seeing more about Colorado....always wanted to visit!

M.

 

[BritKLR]

Welcome and looking forward to the build!
Never heard of 125% rule (only in F1 back in the day...) and it seems a really antiquated way of doing things. Would be much simpler to use an FSR/site coverage calc, but that's just me. I guess there was no 'grandfather' clause that allowed you to continue with the original size as at the time you first talked to them, it was the permitted size? That's what happens here.

As far as the other things - and at risk for showing my Canadian colours here - I don't actually find the other items all that restrictive. Yes, seems a lot more than most development projects I read about here, but if you break it all down, I think it's pretty reasonable.

Love your toys and really looking forward to seeing more about Colorado....always wanted to visit!

M.

Thanks!

Yes, I was very surprised when it got kicked back since I had two years of supporting e-mails for the 1500 sq ft size.....but, it boiled down to county code and the first person to pay the SPR/W and building permit fees.

The real kick in the pants is there is a new large home going to be built up the mountain from us and if their square footage gets approved, under the full site plan review (SPR) process, we could regain our 400 sq feet. It’s nuts and drives me crazy but, what I’ve learned is just get it built now otherwise some other code, ordinance, construction or rule may happen. Now, we have some great neighbors but anything can happen in the mountains.

 

[Maineiacmoose]

That seems like a huge chore for building a garage. Looks like the land makes it well worth the headache. That is one beautiful spot enjoy the build!

 

[BritKLR]

That seems like a huge chore for building a garage. Looks like the land makes it well worth the headache. That is one beautiful spot enjoy the build!

Thanks! We do enjoy it.

 

[pi_guy]

Interesting. Due to the gold mining history in Boulder County I’m familiar with the hazmat issues related to the processing of the gold ore (acids, cyanide, etc) and the tailings (part of the closing documents when purchasing land in rural Colorado) but I’m not familiar with similar issues regarding Tungsten other then the waste products from mining and raw exposure of materials in the tails. I’m I missing something?

We had a manufacturer dump the waste from the process into one of the bays that runs into the LI sound. TIG welding is very regulated here, fire Marshall's go nuts when they see the setup. They banned shellfish from the area.
Not sure if it is picked up in plants such as a vegetable garden.

 

[Rix911C4]

Gear shop? What do you mean when you say gear shop? Do you mean spur and helical or bevel and hypoid? Or boots and skis and gloves? I’m in the industry of manufacturing gears and have been for a bunch of years. Would be glad to chat and share what and who I know, and see if I can be of any help. Good luck!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Pluribus]

Looks like an absolutely gorgeous spot! Sorry to hear about the size downgrade. Could you build 2/3 of your original design, then add the rest of it later? In other words, just build the full slab with a stem wall at the intersection of the middle part, but only build the main/tall part and one side. Granted, you wouldn't have a clear span for the whole thing, but that way you'd get your square footage eventually, as well as the building design you want.

I live in a more agricultural jurisdiction, so I could build as big as my bank account would allow, as far as I know.

Those B26-TLB's are nice rigs; how are you liking it now that you've put some hours on it? Looks like yours didn't come with the hydraulic thumb for the backhoe, but I do see a bracket. Are you considering adding the thumb, or if you don't have the hydraulics, at least a manual thumb? They're super-handy.

 

[drivesitfar]

BRIT: when you said you retired from the "BEST JOBS EVER" i certainly wouldn't have thought SWAT was one of them, but happy to hear you liked the job or maybe the people a lot.

I'll read more of your thread and see more of your build and more about your new gear biz later and just wanted to wish you the best in your quest to build your new place.

good luck.

 

[BritKLR]

Gear shop? What do you mean when you say gear shop? Do you mean spur and helical or bevel and hypoid? Or boots and skis and gloves? I’m in the industry of manufacturing gears and have been for a bunch of years. Would be glad to chat and share what and who I know, and see if I can be of any help. Good luck!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks! But our gear is textile gear. We manufacture a line of wax canvas bags/rolls for the off-road world. Our manufacturing is done on the front range here in Colorado. I’ll have a R/D area I this shop to continue to produce development in the mountains.

 

[BritKLR]

Looks like an absolutely gorgeous spot! Sorry to hear about the size downgrade. Could you build 2/3 of your original design, then add the rest of it later? In other words, just build the full slab with a stem wall at the intersection of the middle part, but only build the main/tall part and one side. Granted, you wouldn't have a clear span for the whole thing, but that way you'd get your square footage eventually, as well as the building design you want.

I live in a more agricultural jurisdiction, so I could build as big as my bank account would allow, as far as I know.

Those B26-TLB's are nice rigs; how are you liking it now that you've put some hours on it? Looks like yours didn't come with the hydraulic thumb for the backhoe, but I do see a bracket. Are you considering adding the thumb, or if you don't have the hydraulics, at least a manual thumb? They're super-handy.

I purchased it with approx. 160 hours and I now have over 350 hours. It works perfectly for what I’m doing here in the mountains. I’ve considered the thumb but, haven’t really found a need for it yet. It’s plumbed for it, just need to buy one. Thanks!

 

[BritKLR]

BRIT: when you said you retired from the "BEST JOBS EVER" i certainly wouldn't have thought SWAT was one of them, but happy to hear you liked the job or maybe the people a lot.

I'll read more of your thread and see more of your build and more about your new gear biz later and just wanted to wish you the best in your quest to build your new place.

good luck.

Different time, place and people. I came on in 1987, retired at 25 years. Loved the peopleI worked with (minus a couple, of course), the community I served and the opportunities I had. Understanding the true mission of SWAT and one can understand why. Cheers!

 

[BritKLR]

Update:

We received an e-mail from the County asking for us to revise our building plan to include the following:

1) type and location of silt fence down hill from building site
2) type and location of emergency turn around for EMS vehicles
3) Revegetation affidavit that requires us to re grass any disturbed areas following construction. Fines apply if we don’t re-grass.
4)Non-residence affidavit and notarized. This document basically states that the shop can never be used as a residence. It’s forever and attaches to the deed. Future owners are bound by it as well. $1000 a day fine if you violate it.

Got this all done and turned in! Our permit is approved but won’t be issued until the County reopens following the Covid19 close down. We’re still looking at June 1 to start!

 

[BritKLR]

Our final stamped plans are done and into the County for final review and approval. We’re 4th in line for approval!

 

[Gotcha640]

Is the 1500/1047sf total allowed, or do you already have a house on the property and this is the remainder? I say some mention of a house, but want sure if it was existing or planned.

 

[BritKLR]

Is the 1500/1047sf total allowed, or do you already have a house on the property and this is the remainder? I say some mention of a house, but want sure if it was existing or planned.

Yes. The 125% rule includes our house sq ft, decks and covered carport and the averaging of all the houses in our mountain plat. This left us a 1050 sq ft building.

For clarification we could build larger if we went two other routes.
1) Purchased a neighbors building Footage, kinda like carbon foot print points. The last time a neighbor offered their building footage it cost $150k.
2) Apply for a full site plan review (SPR) building permit versus the site plan review wavier (SPRW). The SPR cost $10k more plus the cost of specialized site studies (soil, engineering, etc, ) and then there was no guarantee they would approve the larger building without #1. So we stayed with the smaller sq ft and SPRW.

Hope this helps explain why we went the route we went.

 

[BritKLR]

Out building permit was approved and I’ve since received it. Thought I’d share with you all what a permit costs in Boulder, Colorado! Take a look at those fees on taxes and taxes on fees.....also did a little snow removal to get the site dried out for our June start date!

 

[el monte slim]

Out building permit was approved and I’ve since received it. Thought I’d share with you all what a permit costs in Boulder, Colorado! Take a look at those fees on taxes and taxes on fees.....also did a little snow removal to get the site dried out for our June start date!

They certainly know how to extract their pound of flesh in building permit fees and taxes on same. Three line items of "Open Space Capital Improvement Taxes" dating back 15 years, plus another entry for "Open Space Tax" on top of that? I'm surprised there's no arbitrary fee item entitled "Just Because We Say So Bucko!"

 

[readhead]

Shouldn't there be a "you are just lucky we let you live in Boulder county" tax?

 

[BritKLR]

Yeah, it’s made my head spin especially since the last time I built a shop in Missouri the total permit cost was $15.00 and was issued the same day.

 

[MileHighRover]

Boulder, 25 square miles surrounded by reality.

 

[mtechgunman]

Can you build your shop 2’ taller? If so, after inspection put a steel mezzanine in there. My shop is 18’ walls, 60x40. Put a mezzanine over half of it. You can get them custom built to your specs & footprint. PM me for details.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BritKLR]

Boulder, 25 square miles surrounded by reality.

Yep....I’m lucky that they approved me adding riprap on top of an existing rock slope versus bringing in dirt and seeding it for grass, plus a $15,000 grass bond to make sure the grass grows.

 

[drivesitfar]

Brit: good luck now that the plans are approved and i'm guessing your builders are at the ready. or did this C19 shove you down the schedule?

i hope you get it framed and roofed in and all the cement work done before winter sets in and wishing you the best while I watch and learn.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Wow what a nice place! Can you also build some sheds? My father got around some permit rules by building two large sheds and then adding a roof between them to form a carport to park a few vehicles. Just an idea.