Permits, Codes & Construction Drawings

Course competency

On completing this course you can determine which authority has jurisdiction over a given parcel, establish which code editions are actually in force there, choose and justify a permit route among the three that exist, assemble a permit set that will survive plan review, take a non-standard material through an alternative means and methods submission, and carry a project from pre-application research to certificate of occupancy without a surprise.

Why this course is second

Course 1 read the land. This course establishes what you are allowed to build on it.

That order is not arbitrary. The regulatory answer depends on the parcel — which county, inside or outside a municipality, what zone, what soils, whether there is a well, whether there is an acequia. You cannot research the rules until you know where you are standing. But you must know the rules before a single sheet of drawings is produced, because the most expensive document in a building project is a finished design that cannot be permitted.

The misconception this course exists to kill

Regenerative construction is not outside the law.

There is a persistent belief — in the natural building world, on forums, in the folklore that surrounds off-grid living — that tire walls, rainwater catchment and botanical waste treatment are fringe practices that code officials will never approve, and that the only real options are to build in a jurisdiction with no enforcement or to build without a permit and hope.

This is false, and believing it is the single most damaging thing a regenerative builder can do. Pangea has permitted regenerative construction in multiple jurisdictions in the United States and internationally. It takes knowledge, preparation and patience. It does not take luck, and it does not take a sympathetic official — though a sympathetic official helps.

Building without a permit where one is required is not a Pangea approach. It creates personal liability, it makes the building unsellable and unfinanceable, it usually makes it uninsurable, and in some jurisdictions it produces an order to demolish. It also does real damage to everyone who comes after you, because every unpermitted tire building is an argument in the hands of the next official who does not want to approve one.

Your permit is not only yours. It is precedent. Treat it that way.

What this course does not do

It does not make you a code official, an architect or an engineer.

There are places in this course where the correct professional answer is hire someone. A structural engineer's seal on a tire wall is not a formality you can talk your way around; HVAC and natural gas work cannot be performed by the homeowner on a New Mexico homeowner permit at all, whatever their skill (Lesson 6.2). The competency this course builds is knowing what is required, who must produce it, and how to assemble it into a package that gets approved — not doing every part of it yourself.

A note on jurisdiction

This course teaches a method and illustrates it with New Mexico.

Specific figures — code editions, fee resolutions, plan scales, who issues what in Taos County — are given because concrete examples teach better than abstractions, and because a great many Academy students are building in New Mexico. Every one of them changes at a jurisdictional boundary, and most of them change on a three-year cycle. The method transfers everywhere. The numbers do not. Lesson 4 is largely about how to find the numbers for wherever you are.

Course structure