Berthoud is a progressive community providing a quality of life enjoyed by past and present generations, while ensuring its position for the future within the dynamic Front Range economic corridor.
Berthoud provides a blend of graceful Victorian homes, new housing developments, tree lined streets, beautiful parks and an historic business district to create a warm, hometown environment.
The Berthoud Board of Trustees took action on February 24, 2009 to assist the local economy by reducing the cost of building permits, extending the timeframe for payment of permit fees and revising the collateral requirements necessary to guarantee public improvements being constructed by local developers. It is hoped that these actions will assist both the building trades and the larger construction industry and they were taken based upon the extraordinary economic situation. The current Town of Berthoud incentive policy includes:
Change in the timing of the payment of most Building Permit fees
All fees due and payable to the Town at Building Permit except for 3 (Building Permit, Plan Review Fee, Electric Permit) are waived until the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy. All other fees are deferred until issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy.
Reduction in the cost of a Building Permit
The cost of a building permit in the Town of Berthoud is reduced by an average of 18.6%.
Building, Plan Review and Electrical Permits: These fees have been reduced by 55% in this spreadsheet. These fees are set by the adopted Building Code (UBC 1997) and use the valuation of the construction as the base of the permit cost.
Fees without any proposed change: Eleven of the 19 fees listed on a building permit will not change. These are a combination of fees too small to affect the cost of a permit (temp. meter, const. water, etc.) and fees that support a specific bond payment for the Town of Berthoud, Larimer County taxes, and other District charges.
Parkland Dedication and Development: The Parkland dedication fee is reduced by 50%. The Parkland development fee is reduced by 30%.
Developers building the parks within their development currently do not pay these fees.
Public Facilities: This fee is reduced by 30%. This fee supports maintenance of existing facilities and construction of new facilities (town hall, recreation center, etc.).
Density Transfer: This entire fee is waived.
Town Use Tax: The Town is waiving 1/3 of the 3% use tax on a large construction project. Use tax charges are now 2% rather than 3% for new home construction, commercial or industrial projects. The use tax for small projects like basement finishes, re-roofing, water heaters, etc. remains at 3%.
Changes to the public improvements collateral requirement The collateral requirements for public improvements (water, sewer, roads, landscaping, etc.) have been reduced from 115% to 25% of the value of those public improvements. On a $1 million dollar public improvement project (a large subdivision) the amount of collateral needed to guarantee public improvements would drop from $1,150,000 to $250,000; a reduction of $900,000.
