Spencer Schar: Colorado Developers Required to Make Homes More Wildfire Resistant
Having recently relocated to the Denver area, entrepreneur Spencer Schar takes a keen interest in local development planning and architectural styles. This article will look at new Colorado state legislation requiring developers to ensure that homes are more wildfire resistant in response to the rising threat of megafires.
Colorado’s state government has raised the bar in building standards for homes in high-risk areas following publication of ProPublica’s report highlighting a failure of previous efforts to improve fire resistance in housing. ProPublica’s research suggested a lack of compliance with fire-resistant housing material requirements by both developers and municipalities.
In 2023, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a law paving the way for the creation of a code board to develop a statewide building code to protect Coloradan homes against wildfires. Scientists have been calling for the move for some time to protect both residents and first responders as wildfires steadily increase in terms of both tenacity and frequency due to climate change.
The bill established a 21-member board tasked with developing standards for both new and substantially redeveloped homes situated withing high-risk areas. The legislation includes rules for clearing surrounding vegetation as well as requiring constructors to use fire-resistant materials. The board includes building industry representatives, rural and urban residents, and government officials, as well as fire officials, an architect, and insurers, among others.
The move came after ProPublica’s investigation revealed that Colorado regulations had failed to keep pace with the rising threat of megafires. In recent years, wildfires in Colorado and other parts of the country are being fueled by extreme weather events, threatening urban areas. Legislative efforts requiring the integration of fire-resistant materials in home construction across Colorado have been repeatedly stymied by developers and municipalities, with taxpayers left to shoulder the ever-increasing responsibility of fighting fires and rebuilding damaged and destroyed homes.
Mike Morgan serves as director of Fire Prevention & Control’s Colorado division. In an interview at a fire station nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, he explained that the new law would give the fire department an opportunity to start looking at ways to build safer homes. Drawing the audience’s attention to nearby homes surrounded by towering pines, he explained that the goal was to normalize fire-resistant construction over time. Until the Colorado state government passed the legislation in 2023, Colorado was one of just eight states lacking a minimum construction standard for homes.
Jim Pauley is the president and CEO of the National Fire Protection Association, an organization that described the new law as “landmark” legislation. SB23-166, the new law establishing a Wildfire Resiliency Code Board, has been hailed as a tremendous step forward in expanding wildfire mitigation in Colorado. The International Code Council also strongly supported SB23-166, praising its passage.
In recent years, Colorado has witnessed the devastating impact of wildfires several times, with four of its largest wildfires of all time occurring between 2020 and 2023. In 2020 and 2021, wildfires led to the destruction of almost 1,500 homes across Colorado, culminating in an estimated $3.3 billion in insured losses, as well as two deaths in the 2021 Marshall Fire. With hurricane-force winds fanning flames across overgrown grasslands, the Marshall Fire was the most destructive in the state’s history, with this fire alone resulting in the loss of 1,084 residences and destroying seven businesses within a matter of hours.
In addition to establishing wildfire standards and codes, the Wildfire Resiliency Code Board has also been charged with defining wildland-urban interface areas and identifying which parts of Colorado should be relocated within it. Karl Fippinger, vice president of Fire and Disaster Mitigation at the International Code Council, said he looked forward to partnering with the Wildfire Resiliency Coad Board in its consideration of best practices and model codes.