Land and acreage in El Paso County

Zoning and land use in unincorporated El Paso County sit with the county’s Planning and Community Development Department, which publishes the Land Development Code and enforces it through its Code Enforcement division. Building permits are a separate office: the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, which serves unincorporated El Paso County along with Colorado Springs and several other cities and towns.

The Land Development Code is being rewritten. The county put a draft out for public review on August 31, 2026 and says the work is not complete, so the lot sizes and rules on this page are from the code in force before that. Ask Planning and Community Development which version applies to a parcel you are considering.

Table 5-4 of the Land Development Code sets the minimum lot sizes. In the forestry and agricultural districts, F-5 and A-5 are 5 acres and A-35 is 35 acres with a 500 foot minimum width. In the rural residential districts, RR-5 is 5 acres, RR-2.5 is 2.5 acres and RR-0.5 is 21,780 square feet, which is half an acre.

One detail catches people: under a footnote to the same table, a lot abutting a section-line county road may be 4.75 acres, with a 165 foot minimum width. A five acre district can therefore contain legal lots slightly under five acres.

The county’s Water Master Plan calls the Denver Basin aquifers the primary water supply in El Paso County, and the state places the basin’s southern edge around Colorado Springs. Since 1986 the county has applied a 300-year water supply rule to subdivisions relying on Denver Basin groundwater.

East of Colorado Springs, around Ellicott and Peyton, is the Upper Black Squirrel Creek Designated Ground Water Basin. Designated basins are administered by the Colorado Ground Water Commission, and wells there are permitted as small capacity wells under different rules: most small capacity permits allow up to three dwellings, domestic animal watering and up to one acre of lawn and garden, regardless of parcel size.

Outside a designated basin, the standard exempt permit on a parcel under 35 acres allows household use inside one home only. Which regime a parcel is in is the first water question to answer. A new well needs a state permit, and the state says review of a complete application can take up to 49 days. The well permit guide explains the permit classes, and the El Paso County acreage guide covers the 300-year rule and which office holds which record.

El Paso County Public Health regulates septic systems in the county. Since January 1, 2024, an application for a septic permit has to be submitted by a licensed installer, so a buyer planning to build works through an installer rather than applying directly.

The rule at sale changed on July 11, 2026. The county removed its requirement for a septic inspection when a property sells, and the certified inspection is now voluntary except where the health department requires one, such as a change of use. A buyer who wants to know the condition of the system now has to ask for the inspection rather than rely on the seller being required to produce one.

The county’s Engineering Criteria Manual makes a driveway permit a condition of obtaining a building permit. The county does not maintain private roads, and converting one to county maintenance needs the support of every owner who takes access from it. The guide to rural access and easements covers what to establish about one.

For wildfire, the Colorado State Forest Service’s Woodland Park field office serves El Paso County and will do a wildfire hazard assessment of a home for a fee, and the state’s public risk viewer gives a free lookup by address.