Denver building projects can need SUDP review

A building permit can feel like the finish line, the moment a project is finally cleared to break ground. In Denver, a second review often runs alongside it, and it asks where all the water goes.

When a development project comes in through E-Permits, the SUDP team at DOTI (the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure) checks it against the wastewater code, standards, policy, and criteria. That review reaches well past the toilet drain. It can take in the sanitary sewer connection, storm drainage, how the site is graded, whether any of it sits in a floodplain, the groundwater underneath, pretreatment devices, the project’s effect on the public right-of-way, and its impact on neighboring private property.

This is where a job that looks purely structural turns into a water question. An addition, a ground-up build, a tenant fit-out, or any project that reshapes drainage or moves plumbing can clear the building side and still owe a wastewater review before it is truly approved. A team that budgets only for the building permit can find the schedule stalled on the SUDP side.

The way to avoid that surprise is to treat sewer and drainage as part of the permit set from the start, not an afterthought. Denver’s Sewer Use and Drainage Permit pages lay out what the SUDP review covers, so the team can fold it into the timeline rather than discover it once the building permit is already in hand.