Mountain Village offers building permit fee discounts with smart building measures

In an effort to reduce energy and greenhouse gas emissions, the Town of Mountain Village (TMV) offers property owners up to 100 percent off building permit fees with its Smart Building Incentive Program. “The Smart Build Incentive Program has been in place since 2015 and reflects the TMV commitment to reducing development’s carbon footprint by smart design. We hope to educate our building community to take advantage of this program in order to reduce building permit fees and encourage energy-efficient design,” said Michelle Haynes, planning and development services director. The Smart Building Incentive Program offers three owner incentives which can be used for individual building permit fee discounts, or collectively for a full fee waiver. This could save homeowners upwards of tens of thousands of dollars depending on project size. “The more you lower the energy use of your home the more efficient or “smart” your home is and the higher building permit waiver you get,” said Zoe Dohnal, Mountain Village’s business development and community engagement coordinator. The first owner initiative is focused on offsetting energy use by renewable energy. A 20 percent building permit fee discount is available for any project with either no exterior energy use or at least 20 percent of estimated energy use being offset by a renewable energy source. Additionally, Mountain Village’s Solar Energy Incentive program offers a 40 cent rebate per watt up to a total rebate of $2,000. An average home will install a 4,000-watt system which would equate to a $1,600 rebate from Mountain Village. The second initiative focuses on eliminate exterior energy. A 15 percent building fee permit discount is available for buildings designed with no exterior energy use elements other than lighting and an owner signs a convenient forfeiting the right to install any exterior energy use within 50 years of receiving the property’s certificate of occupancy. Up to a 100 percent fee discount is available for buildings with a Home Energy Rating (HERS) rating of 50 or lower. HERS ratings can be lowered by either installing on-site or off-site solar photovoltaic systems. For questions and more information, please contact the Mountain Village Planning and Development Department by emailing our planning department or calling (970)369-8251.