Building on Raw Land in Unincorporated El Paso County, Colorado

The Road Impact Fee: in effect since 2010, charged per vehicle trip generated

New development in unincorporated El Paso County has been subject to a countywide Road Impact Fee since March 1, 2010. The fee applies whenever a property receives a Land Use Approval -- defined broadly to include a building permit or other permit for a new use, new structure, or expansion of an existing use or structure that generates new vehicle trips. As of January 2025, the fee was set at $421.46 per trip, and the total charge for a given project is calculated by multiplying that per-trip rate by the trip-generation rate assigned to the specific land use (a single-family home, for example, is assigned a standard trip-generation rate under the county's implementation document, which determines the total fee for that home). Because the fee is trip-based rather than a flat per-lot charge, the amount due can differ for different building types on similarly sized parcels -- confirm the applicable trip-generation rate for your specific planned use with the county rather than assuming a flat number.

This fee is separate from, and in addition to, standard building-permit fees, septic (OWTS) permitting costs, and any road-use or access-permit costs for constructing a new driveway or access point -- it's a distinct line item tied specifically to the traffic impact of new development on county roads, and it's easy for an out-of-state or first-time raw-land buyer to miss when budgeting a build.

Payment timing options for residential subdivisions

For Single-Family-Detached or Multi-Family residential Final Plats submitted on or after January 1, 2025, the county gives developers some flexibility in when the fee is actually paid: it can be paid prior to recording the Final Plat, the entire plat can be placed into one of two Public Improvement Districts that handle the fee differently, or payment can be deferred until a later Land Use Approval -- often the building-permit stage for an individual lot. If you're buying a single already-platted lot within a larger subdivision rather than raw acreage you'll plat yourself, ask specifically whether the Road Impact Fee for that lot has already been satisfied through a Public Improvement District mechanism, was paid at platting, or remains due at your building permit -- this can be a real, sometimes-overlooked closing-adjacent cost depending on how the original subdivision handled it.

What to confirm before budgeting a build

• The current per-trip fee rate and the trip-generation rate assigned to your specific planned use, since both can be updated by the county and the resulting total varies by land-use type.
• Whether the fee has already been paid for a specific already-platted lot (via a Public Improvement District or at platting) or remains due at your building permit.
• Whether your planned construction counts as a new "Land Use Approval" that triggers the fee at all -- a minor addition or accessory structure that doesn't generate new trips may not.
• How the Road Impact Fee interacts with El Paso County's other building-on-raw-land basics -- the county's OWTS licensed-installer requirement for septic and the pending Land Development Code rewrite covered on this county's hub -- since a build that touches multiple review processes should be sequenced with the county's Planning and Community Development Department rather than assumed to run in parallel automatically.