Jefferson County is the west side of the metro, where the plains stop and the foothills start. Lakewood, Arvada, Wheat Ridge and Golden sit on the flatter eastern half; Evergreen, Conifer and the canyon communities sit up in the hills. Each city runs its own right-of-way permit and its own contractor license, and the county has a separate access permit for drives onto county roads.
Lakewood, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Golden, Edgewater, Morrison, the Jefferson County parts of Westminster and Littleton, and unincorporated areas including Ken Caryl, Evergreen and Conifer. Arvada and Westminster also cross into Adams County; their rules follow the city.
The Colorado Climate Center describes the foothills west of the metro as rising abruptly, to between 7,000 and 9,000 feet. That shows on the ground. Below them, drives are short and mostly level, much like the rest of the suburbs. Up in the hills, drives climb, curve, and run along slopes, and water from the hillside above crosses them every time it rains or the snow melts.
A sloped drive fails differently. Runoff follows the edges and the low side, cuts under unsupported asphalt and carries fines out of the base, so the edge breaks off and the surface starts to sag along one side. Sealing still protects the top, but the quote on a hill drive always looks at where the water crosses, whether a swale or culvert is doing its job, and whether the edge needs rebuilding before any coat goes on. Sealing on a slope is also scheduled for dry weather both before and after, so the coat is not washed downhill.
Ground movement is a county concern too. Like the rest of the Front Range, much of the eastern county sits on clays the Colorado Geological Survey classes as expansive, and Jefferson County's own right-of-way policy refers to a designated dipping bedrock area where it sets extra requirements. Heaved sections on drives here are worth reading as a soil question first.
Sealing a private drive is not permit work in these cities. In unincorporated areas, patching or paving the first 15 feet of a drive off a county road is, and it goes on the quote with the inspection.
Sealing on your land does not. Patching or repaving within 15 feet of the road needs the county Access Permit and a Road and Bridge inspection.
Only through a contractor holding Arvada's municipal license, after the city's pre-construction meeting.
It protects the surface. The runoff itself needs a swale, a culvert or a rebuilt edge, and the quote will say which.
Usually. Higher ground cools off sooner in the evening and later in spring, so foothill jobs are booked for the warmest stretch of summer and early autumn, and a cold forecast moves the date rather than the coat going down anyway. Suburban drives lower down have a little more room at both ends.
To the east: Denver and Adams County. To the south east: Douglas County.
