--- title: "Colorado Artificial Turf Law 2026 | TIMELESS Grass & Greens" description: "Colorado bans nonfunctional artificial turf, not all of it. HB25-1113 defines functional artificial turf, and the golf-course list is in the statute." url: https://www.timelessgrass.com/guides/colorado-turf-law/ updated: 2026-09-12 --- Denver Metro # Colorado's artificial turf law: SB24-005 as amended by HB25-1113 * * * Updated 2026-09-12 The short version ## Is artificial turf illegal in Colorado? We install artificial turf across the Denver metro. Colorado has not banned it. SB24-005, as amended by HB25-1113, prohibits nonfunctional artificial turf on commercial, institutional and HOA-common property. Functional artificial turf is defined at C.R.S. 37-99-102(6.5) and permitted, and single-family homes sit outside the state prohibition. Your own town's code can still be stricter. Ask us about your address: 303-349-2368. Planning a turf installation? Get a layout, turf options and a written quote for your space. [Request a free estimate](https://www.timelessgrass.com/estimate/) [Call 303-349-2368](tel:3033492368) We’ll call to arrange a free site visit. On this page On this page 1. [One word in the 2025 amendment decides what the ban reaches](https://www.timelessgrass.com/guides/colorado-turf-law/#section-1) 2. [What Colorado counts as functional artificial turf](https://www.timelessgrass.com/guides/colorado-turf-law/#section-2) 3. [Which properties the prohibition actually reaches](https://www.timelessgrass.com/guides/colorado-turf-law/#section-3) 4. [The dates — including the one where guidance disagrees](https://www.timelessgrass.com/guides/colorado-turf-law/#section-4) 5. [Your town can be stricter, and the state will not pay](https://www.timelessgrass.com/guides/colorado-turf-law/#section-5) 6. [What the law leaves room for](https://www.timelessgrass.com/guides/colorado-turf-law/#section-6) ## One word in the 2025 amendment decides what the ban reaches In 2024, Senate Bill 24-005 created a new Article 99 in Title 37 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. C.R.S. 37-99-103(1) told local governments that from 1 January 2026 they must not install, or allow anyone to install, "nonfunctional turf, artificial turf, or invasive plant species" as part of a new development or redevelopment project on covered property. Artificial turf, unqualified. SB24-005 wrote in an exception for athletic fields of play, and took effect 7 August 2024. House Bill 25-1113 rewrote that sentence. Section 3 of the signed act amends 37-99-103(1) to insert NONFUNCTIONAL in front of "artificial turf" — the new word printed in capitals, which is how Colorado marks new statutory material. One word, inserted on purpose, and the product category came back inside the law. HB25-1113 was signed 20 May 2025 and took effect 6 August 2025. So the line you have read elsewhere — that Colorado banned artificial turf — was true of the 2024 text and is not true of the text in force today. Everything now turns on which side of that one word your project sits. ## What Colorado counts as functional artificial turf HB25-1113 added a definition of functional artificial turf at C.R.S. 37-99-102(6.5). Inside it sits a list written for our trade. The definition names the playing area of a golf course, "a driving range, chipping and putting green, tee box, green, fairway, and rough." Read that again. Driving ranges, chipping and putting greens, tee boxes. Those are not our words for our own product line — they are the legislature's. SB24-005 had already excepted athletic fields of play in 2024. Then 37-99-102(12.5) closes the circle: nonfunctional artificial turf is artificial turf that is not functional artificial turf. A decorative green lawn outside an office building is the kind of installation the prohibition is aimed at. ## Which properties the prohibition actually reaches Applicable property is defined at 37-99-102(1). It reaches commercial, institutional and industrial property and common interest community property — which 37-99-102(5) describes as the land a unit owners' association owns and maintains, entryways, parks and other common elements. SB24-005 expressly excluded residential property. HB25-1113 added one category back: applicable residential real property, defined at 37-99-102(1.5) as multifamily housing with more than twelve dwelling units. The practical answer for a homeowner: under state law your single-family house is not covered, and neither is your own lot inside an HOA. The association's entryway and common park are. Nothing already in the ground has to come out — 37-99-103(4)(a) preserves anything installed before 1 January 2026. And a redevelopment project only counts once it disturbs more than fifty percent of the aggregate landscape area, per 37-99-102(14). ## The dates — including the one where guidance disagrees Three dates matter. From 1 January 2025, SB24-005's restriction on state-facility projects. From 1 January 2026, the prohibition on local entities under 37-99-103(1). And 1 January 2028, the later compliance date carried by the limbs HB25-1113 added at 37-99-103(5) and 37-99-104(1). Published guidance disagrees on the multifamily date. Colorado's Division of Real Estate told its 2025 HOA Forum that the twelve-plus-unit expansion applies "on or after January 1, 2026." Western Resource Advocates' compliance guide and the Town of Fraser's staff report read it as a 1 January 2028 obligation. If you manage more than twelve units, ask your municipality which date it adopted. Whatever the state text says, the document your plan reviewer applies is your municipality's own adopted code. 37-99-103(4)(d) lets a local entity be more stringent than the state floor, and "local entity" at 37-99-102(9) includes special and metropolitan districts — so in a metro-district community a district rule can sit above the town code. Ask for both in writing before material is ordered. ## Your town can be stricter, and the state will not pay We have not confirmed whether any Denver-metro municipality or district has used that more-stringent power against functional artificial turf as well. It is a code-by-code question. State grant money will not pay for artificial turf. C.R.S. 37-60-135, the Turf Replacement Program statute, excludes artificial turf by name from what the money may be spent on; the Colorado Water Conservation Board stopped accepting applications in March 2025; and single-family homeowners and HOAs were never eligible applicants in the first place. Any rebate still running belongs to your water provider, not the state, and providers differ on whether synthetic counts. ## What the law leaves room for Put the pieces together. The work the statute names by hand — driving ranges, chipping and putting greens, tee boxes, greens, fairways — sits outside the prohibition. Athletic fields of play were excepted from the 2024 text, and the 2025 amendment narrowed the prohibition to nonfunctional artificial turf. Article 99 places no restriction on artificial turf at a single-family home. What Colorado's landscape statutes push on, all the way through, is irrigated grass and the water it drinks. The pressure is on the sprinkler, not on the synthetic. One limit: artificial turf is not water-wise landscaping for the purposes of the Turf Replacement Program. That statute excludes artificial turf by name and cross-references its water-wise landscaping standard at 37-60-135(2)(l). Turf removes irrigation from its own footprint, and that saving is real, but it is not xeriscape. For the answer at your address, call 303-349-2368. ## Common questions ### Is artificial turf illegal in Colorado? No. The prohibition at C.R.S. 37-99-103(1), as amended by HB25-1113, applies to **nonfunctional** artificial turf on commercial, institutional, industrial and HOA-common property. Functional artificial turf is defined at 37-99-102(6.5) and permitted. Under state law single-family homes are not covered, and anything installed before 1 January 2026 is preserved by 37-99-103(4)(a). Your town's own code may be stricter — check it. ### Does the law stop me putting in a putting green? Not under state law. C.R.S. 37-99-102(6.5) names the playing area of a golf course — "a driving range, chipping and putting green, tee box, green, fairway, and rough" — as functional artificial turf. On a single-family lot Article 99 does not apply in the first place. Your municipality or metro district may still have a rule of its own under 37-99-103(4)(d), so check before material is ordered. ### Can my HOA ban artificial turf in my back yard? Not by a flat prohibition on a detached single-family home. C.R.S. 38-33.3-106.5(1)(i.5), added by SB23-178, provides that association design guidelines must not prohibit nonvegetative turf grass in the backyard of a unit owner's property, with a 45-day written notice to cure and a remedy of the greater of five hundred dollars or actual damages. The phrase itself entered Colorado law through HB21-1229 in 2021. Two limits: the protection is back-yard only — an association may restrict nonvegetative turf grass to rear yards — and the term is not defined in the definitions subsection at C.R.S. 37-60-126(11)(b). Submit the plan, cite the section, get the answer in writing. ### Is there a Colorado rebate for artificial turf? Not from the state. C.R.S. 37-60-135, the Turf Replacement Program statute, excludes artificial turf by name from what grant money may be spent on, the Colorado Water Conservation Board stopped accepting applications in March 2025, and single-family homeowners and HOAs were never eligible applicants. Any rebate still running belongs to an individual water provider. Ask yours directly whether synthetic qualifies. This page explains the rules that apply to turf installation. It isn’t legal advice: statutes change and local codes differ, so check with your town, your water provider or your HOA before you build. Free estimate ## See the plan before you decide. Tell us about your project and we’ll call to arrange a free visit. [Or call 303-349-2368](tel:3033492368) Your free estimate includes - A visit to measure your space - A custom layout, drawn for your space - Turf options, side by side - A written price, with no pressure to sign [Request a free estimate](https://www.timelessgrass.com/estimate/) Five short steps. We’ll call to arrange your visit.