{"id":97580,"date":"2018-10-09T12:54:05","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T18:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/draft-bill-would-provide-incentives-for-fire-mitigation\/"},"modified":"2018-10-09T12:54:05","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T18:54:05","slug":"draft-bill-would-provide-incentives-for-fire-mitigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/draft-bill-would-provide-incentives-for-fire-mitigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Draft bill would provide incentives for fire mitigation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Lawmakers
Lawmakers want to encourage the kind of fire mitigation that the homeowners in Falls Creek Ranch subdivision have committed to since 2002. A draft state bill would provide financial incentives to homeowners associations that mitigate fire risk.<\/span>Terrance Siemon\/Special to the Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Homeowners living near open spaces could receive financial incentives for clearing brush, trees and other fire hazards from around their homes if draft legislation passes next year.<\/p>\n

The draft legislation<\/a> could make tax credits or grants available to members of homeowners associations who commit to invest in fire mitigation, said Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango, who worked on the bill.<\/p>\n

Proper mitigation can save time, homes and lives when wildfires threaten homes, McLachlan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw that in Falls Creek this year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This summer, the 416 Fire threatened the Falls Creek Ranch<\/a>, a community of about 100 homes on 940 acres, surrounded by the San Juan National Forest.<\/p>\n

Falls Creek homeowners have cleared away trees and brush from homes since 2002, which allowed firefighters to focus on getting hoses and sprinklers in place to fight the 416 Fire.<\/p>\n

Authors of the bill want to encourage similar work by homeowners associations all across the state, she said.<\/p>\n

The Wildfire Matters Review Committee recently approved the draft legislation, and it will be considered this week by the Legislative Council Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am positive that it will move forward,\u201d said Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, chairman of wildfire committee.<\/p>\n

The state spent $55 million fighting wildfires this year, and this bill could help keep wildfire costs down in the future, Coram said.<\/p>\n

Fire mitigation can also help residents keep their home insurance costs down, he said.<\/p>\n

In coming months, lawmakers will work with stakeholders, including homeowners, to revise the bill before the Colorado Legislature reconvenes in January, McLachlan said.<\/p>\n

Under the current draft, fire protection districts or local governments that oversee fire protection would have to direct fire mitigation efforts for homeowners associations to receive financial incentives.<\/p>\n

Qualifying homeowners would receive a tax credit equal to the value of the work on their property or $5,000, whichever is less, according to the draft bill. It\u2019s unknown if the final legislation would offer tax credits or grants, McLachlan said.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

protection districts would work directly with homeowners associations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,1264,3025,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-property-tax","tag-state-rep-barbara-mclachlan","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97580","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=97580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97580"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}