La Plata County commissioners warn that proposed statewide building and landscape regulations designed to protect wildfire-prone communities could significantly increase construction costs in rural areas. The code would also require the county to expand land-use regulations – something officials say they have little desire and even fewer resources to do.
A draft of the statewide code that would require homes in the wildfire-urban interface – including huge swathes of La Plata County – to be built with ignition-resistant materials and have fire-resistant landscaping could be adopted as soon as July 1.
“La Plata County philosophically supports the concepts and need for a wildland urban interface code,” the Board of County Commissioners wrote in a letter to the state’s Wildfire Resiliency Code Board last month.
But county staff members say that the regulations could increase the cost of building a home in La Plata County by as much as 15% or 20% in some cases. Because the code would also dictate that the county permit previously unregulated development – things like decks – staff members also anticipate a 25% to 50% increase in the number of building permits issued by the Community Development Department.
The WRCB that wrote the proposed 47-page code is accepting public comment through May 2. Draft regulation maps and instructions on how to submit comments can be found at dfpc.colorado.gov/WRCB.
Colorado lawmakers created the Wildfire Resiliency Code Board back in 2023 and tasked it with developing a building code and definitively mapping the state’s wildland-urban interface.
Counties & Commissioners Acting Together, a lobbying organization that includes La Plata County, supported the legislation.
“The whole concept of developing a code for the state of Colorado came back a number of years ago, following the Marshall Fire and also with some insurance challenges that were beginning to occur in the state,” said Karola Hanks, Durango’s former fire marshal who now chairs the code board.
The board began its work in October 2023. State law currently dictates a code must be adopted by July 1. Regulatory officials would then have until Oct. 1 to adopt a code that meets the state’s minimum standard, and until Jan. 1 to begin enforcement.
Construction and landscaping standards would depend on maps developed by the board, which classify wildfire hazard areas by intensity: low, moderate or high.
Properties developed in low hazard areas – found mostly in small pockets of land throughout Southwest Colorado – would need:
- Eaves that can’t trap embers.
- Noncombustible gutters.
- Roofing that complies with class A standards – the most fire resistant classification for roofs.
- Only noncombustible materials or plants within a 5-foot radius of the home.
- Any fencing within eight feet of a home must be built of noncombustible or ignition-resistant material.
The code’s “Class 2” standards would apply to moderate and high-hazard areas, which include many of the subdivisions west of Durango, in the Animas Valley and east of town, on the Florida Mesa and south of Vallecito Reservoir.
Buildings constructed on properties with those classifications must comply with the lower-level standards in addition to heightened protections, including:
- Exterior walls constructed of noncombustible materials, heavy timber or fire-retardant treated wood.
- Fire-hardened decks.
- Windows with a fire-protection rating of no less than 20 minutes.
- Landscaping in all three “structure ignition zones,” reaching 30 feet from the building, would have to be managed in accordance with stringent guidelines.
Colorado is diverse, Hanks pointed out, and no single set of regulations will fit the entire state. This draft lays a foundation.
“We believe that this is the minimum level we need to address that will make a difference for the residents of the state of Colorado,” Hanks said.
County Director of Emergency Management Shawna Legarza, a former wildland firefighter who at one point served as national director of fire and aviation for the U.S. Forest Service, said the code is complex, in-depth and thorough.
“It’s the Cadillac version,” Legarza said.
The only problem? Not everyone can afford a Cadillac.
The BOCC in a March 25 letter asked the state to allocate funding for enforcement of the proposed code.
“I’m concerned right now about the actual implementation of it and enforcement, because we don't have enough staff to do it,” said La Plata County Community Development Director Lynn Hyde. “Right now, the way the draft code is proposed, it would be adding a lot of permitting and staff work.”
Hyde said her staff has the expertise to handle building code reviews, but is limited in its ability to enforce landscaping mitigation measures. While the draft allows that work to be contracted out, the state has not offered any funding to pay for the increased workload foisted upon regulatory officials.
The code, as drafted, would make it incumbent upon the county to issue permits for any sort of open burning, tents and canopies, and tire storage, among other activities, in the wildland-urban interface. None of those activities are currently regulated by the county’s land-use code.
Decks, Hyde pointed out, are something that the county does not currently regulate at all.
In a year when the county is already facing budget constraints and keeping some staff positions vacant to cut costs, back-of-a-napkin math shows that enforcing the code might demand as many as five new staff members.
Construction costs also raised concerns for commissioners. County building staff worked with local supplies to price out the cost of compliance with the stricter standards for a typical home in Edgemont.
Fire-resistant windows? Those were about $9,000 more expensive than a standard $40,000 package.
Siding that complies with standards was $4,000 to $11,000 more expensive.
A Class A fire-rated deck can cost four times more than the common Class B-rated Trex decking. Noncompliant vents cost $12, while compliant vents cost $143.
Although the proportional cost increase on an expensive home might be less, staff estimated that in some cases the code could cause construction costs to rise as much as 20%.
The concerns are not lost on Hanks or the WRCB, though Hanks said the 20% figure seems high. Some of the specific requests made by the BOCC are already being written into the code.
Still, county officials warn that the state is trying to do too much, too quickly.
“You can’t run a marathon tomorrow if you haven’t been training,” Legarza said. “Bottom line – you’re going to get hurt.”
The timeline for adopting a wildland-urban interface code is not up to the WRCB, but was established in law by the Legislature.
A bill working its way through committee would extend the timelines by as much as 18 months.
Although Hanks said engagement work with impacted parties – builders, regulatory officials, homeowners, those in the fire service and other industry experts – has been extensive, she and the board are supportive of a deadline extension.
Funding support for counties is also up to lawmakers, she said, noting that financial incentives could serve as a “carrot” to accompany the code’s regulatory “stick.”
How the board will balance landscape-scale fire resiliency with fiscal and staffing limitations remains unclear.
“You and your team know what needs to be done to keep homes safe,” Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton told Hanks at a meeting in March. “But if we can’t implement it at the local level, it’s for naught.”
rschafir@durangoherald.com
