{"id":12331,"date":"2026-03-11T17:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-council-calls-colorado-wildfire-code-an-unfunded-state-mandate\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:32:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:32:44","slug":"cortez-council-calls-colorado-wildfire-code-an-unfunded-state-mandate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-council-calls-colorado-wildfire-code-an-unfunded-state-mandate\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez council calls Colorado wildfire code an unfunded state mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"During
During a particularly dry season for Cortez, Colorado requires localities surrounded by wild vegetation to take up new building codes for the mitigation of wildfire risk. (Journal file photo)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Cortez City Council on Tuesday approved on first reading an ordinance incorporating new wildfire building codes required by the state of Colorado, which drew concern as an \u201cunfunded state mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The regulations aim to reduce wildfire risk in areas bordering wildlands, but city officials say they could increase construction costs and add administrative responsibilities without state reimbursement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn any ordinance I would like to include that we do believe that this is an unfunded mandate, that we will be tracking our costs and seeking reimbursement from the state,\u201d council member Robert Dobry said during Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

Colorado law says state mandates can be considered optional if they increase a local government\u2019s workload beyond what is already legally required without providing compensation.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Journal,<\/em> Jason Armstrong, city planner and interim director of community and economic development, said the state\u2019s intentions are positive, but the city does not yet know the financial impact of the requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe core purpose of it is to mitigate the risks associated with wildland fires,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cAnd really what that means is just preventing fire from spreading into structures and preventing structures that are already on fire from spreading into the wildland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s Wildfire Resiliency Code Board, established through legislation passed in 2023, requires communities in wildfire-prone areas to adopt its code or enact stricter standards by April 1.<\/p>\n

The code requires construction projects to use fire-retardant, noncombustible or ignition-resistant materials in areas bordering wild vegetation. While the rules will not apply to most properties in central Cortez, they will affect many new developments near city limits.<\/p>\n

The discussion comes as Montezuma County officials continue to emphasize fire prevention and mitigation<\/a> during a dry and windy start to the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the time of year where people need to start thinking about it,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cWe have a lot of wind and it\u2019s dry and we\u2019re in the drought. We haven\u2019t had any snow, so most of our concerns are based around grass fires and scrub rush fires.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Armstrong, Cortez plans to adopt the state code as written.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not making it more stringent than what the state is requiring and the code that they gave us to work with,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n

\"City
City Planner Jason Armstrong shared a map with City Council depicting the areas within Cortez city limits impacted by the new ordinance. The center of town is exempt, but new construction in the yellow and orange zones will need to comply. (Courtesy photo)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The regulations apply to most types of construction, including fences, landscaping, decks, roofs and accessory structures.<\/p>\n

Existing buildings in the wildfire risk zones will not be required to comply unless they undergo major repairs or expansions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve got one side of your house that you need to get re-sided because it\u2019s faded out by the sun, and it\u2019s 25% or more of the total house, then you have to redo the whole thing to meet code,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n

Property owners who comply with the new requirements may see reduced insurance premiums, but Armstrong said the regulations will likely increase construction costs and could affect the types of materials local suppliers carry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more there than there used to be in terms of building code,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cIt is going to increase cost to the community to build and rehab. We just don\u2019t know what that number is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Durango City Council has already adopted the code, and estimated construction costs could rise about 20% <\/a>after enforcement begins July 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is going to be learning along with the community in terms of what that ultimate impact is going to be,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n

City staff must wait on a list of acceptable fire-resistant building materials from the state and determine how to enforce the new standards before the July 1 deadline.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross the state, all these other communities are doing this at the same time. We\u2019re all talking to each other at the state level,\u201d Armstrong said, noting that the state board has created a platform for local governments to share implementation strategies.<\/p>\n

The ordinance will go through a second reading and public comment before final approval ahead of the April 1 state deadline.<\/p>\n

City Attorney Patrick Coleman said the measure could still be amended to formally state the city\u2019s position that the policy is an unfunded mandate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important that we clarify to the state when they are not doing what they should be doing,\u201d Dobry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill makes sense. I think having fire regulations to provide safety and insurability for our state makes sense. But it\u2019s the state\u2019s duty to provide funding to do that, rather than passing it on illegally to municipality.\u201d<\/p>\n

avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State-required wildfire building standards may raise construction costs and city workload<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-12331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18638,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12331\/revisions\/18638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12331"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=12331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}