Pueblo County introduces redesigned permitting website, new sketch-plan workflow and tutorial resources

Pueblo County staff on the advisory board meeting demonstrated a redesigned Pueblo Regional Building Department website and explained changes to the county's sketch-plan review workflow intended to help developers, contractors and homeowners find permit information and get earlier feedback from reviewers.

County speakers said the new site and portal are meant to be a modern, accessible “one‑stop shop” that links to PuebloMeansBusiness and to individual permit applications. The site will include a permit fee calculator for common permits, rebranded licensing pages, staff contact information, tutorial videos and short redirect URLs intended to take users directly to specific application forms.

The county provided details of a revised sketch-plan review process they said will deliver more reviewer comments before and immediately after meetings. The county’s online application will show a checklist and example letter and site plan, require applicants to provide parcel and assessor data (or to mark fields “unknown”), and automatically route submissions to triggered reviewing agencies (for example Pueblo West Metro District, water and wastewater districts, public works, fire districts and state agencies) based on answers in the application.

County staff described the timing and deliverables the new workflow is intended to enforce: sketch-plan meetings are scheduled every second and fourth Tuesday; an application for a meeting is due two weeks before that meeting; reviewers receive the meeting packet in advance and staff will ask reviewers to enter comments within a five‑day window before the meeting; reviewers who cannot attend may post comments in the portal; and the system will automatically generate a consolidated letter and checklist to applicants the Friday after the meeting with all agency comments.

Presenters said the portal will incorporate tutorial videos and step‑by‑step guides inside each application. A demo video shown during the meeting walks an applicant through pueblomeansbusiness.com/sketchplan, the required letter of request and site‑plan elements and an example intake flow; presenters noted the sample values in the video (e.g., 30 expected employees, 20 gallons per day estimated water use) were illustrative only. Staff said OpenGov will supply some automatic population of parcel data where available, though not every property populates reliably yet.

County presenters asked reviewers to enter comments early so packets contain actionable feedback even if a reviewer cannot attend the live meeting, and described an intake/tech‑review step that county staff will use to fill in missing fields such as zoning when applicants mark those items “unknown.” They said the Friday consolidated letter will serve as a printable checklist of next steps for applicants and that agencies must update portal comments after the meeting if their recommendations change.

Staff said the website and workflow still have items to finish: not all properties auto‑populate from GIS/OpenGov, some pages and reporting functions remain in development, and staff planned outreach and public education (including in‑person trainings, webinars and YouTube videos) to reduce calls and improve applicant submissions. A target was stated that the site would be substantially complete in April (staff described an April milestone), and organizers announced an April 8 coordination event (breakfast and program running roughly 8 a.m.–noon) for regional partners at a CSU site.

Ending: County staff encouraged applicants to use the portal, to provide as much parcel/utility information as possible in submissions, and to send feedback on tutorial videos and site links so staff can refine the new tools and the sketch‑plan workflow.