Buying Vacant Land in Colorado?

Look up the permit in the Colorado DWR well permit records. The permit number matters less than what the permit allows.

Under 35 acres, the permit is almost always Household Use Only. That means inside the house. Water cannot be used to irrigate lawns, gardens, windbreaks, livestock, or any other outside use.

35 acres or more usually qualifies for Domestic and Livestock: one well per parcel, serving up to three single-family dwellings, irrigating one acre or less of lawn and garden, and watering domestic animals and livestock.

Exempt wells are generally limited to about 15 gallons per minute and require a non-evaporative wastewater system.

A well drilled on or after May 8, 1972 without a permit was installed illegally. Ask for the permit, not the seller's description of it.

Designated ground water basins and the Denver Basin run under different rules. Confirm which one the parcel sits in.

Under C.R.S. 30-28-101(10)(b), a division of land into parcels of thirty-five or more acres, where no parcel is intended for use by multiple owners, is not a subdivision. It does not go through county subdivision review.

So a 35-acre parcel has the better well permit and the least county scrutiny. Nobody confirmed legal access, water supply or septic feasibility before it was sold to you.

Under 35 acres you get the county review, and a well you cannot water a garden with.

Ask how the parcel was created. If it came out of a 35-acre split, assume nothing was verified.

Colorado allows residential rainwater collection in up to two rain barrels with a combined capacity of 110 gallons or less, collected from the rooftop of a single-family residence or a residence of four or fewer units, used outdoors on that same property.

If your well is Household Use Only, this is the legal way to water a garden. It is also the whole of it.

On-site wastewater systems are permitted by the county public health department under the state OWTS regulation, which counties adopt and may make stricter than the state minimum.

Ask whether a percolation test or soil profile has ever been run on the parcel. Ask the county directly whether a system can be permitted there at all, before you buy.

Confirm required setbacks from the well and from any surface water.

Confirm legal recorded access. A two-track that has always been used is not the same as a recorded easement.

Ask whether the county maintains the road. If it does not, find out who does and what it costs to keep it open in winter.

At elevation, ask how many months of the year the parcel is actually reachable.

Severed mineral estates are common in Colorado. The surface owner may not control what happens on the surface.

Ask for a mineral status check and understand the surface owner's position if the minerals are severed.

Get a homeowner's insurance quote before you close, not after. In some Colorado counties carriers decline to write at all.

Check the parcel against the county's wildfire hazard mapping and ask what mitigation the county requires.

Pull the recorded covenants. Land created by 35-acre splits often carries private covenants in place of county zoning.

Confirm the county's minimum dwelling size, setbacks, and whether a building permit at that elevation or slope requires engineered plans.