Colorado's wildfire code and the first five feet around your house: where turf has to stop

What the code actually requires at 0-5 feet

The 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code is a model code published by the state's Division of Fire Prevention and Control. Section 502.1, Structure Ignition Zone 1, covers the Immediate Zone — the first 0 to 5 feet out from a structure, its decks, stairs and attachments. Section 502.1.2 sets the material rule for that zone: "Use noncombustible, hard surface materials in this zone, such as rock, gravel, sand, concrete, bare earth or stone/concrete pavers." One exception sits in the same section — "Ignition-resistant plantings, per an approved list by the AHJ that is not less than that created by the Colorado State Forest Service, are allowed in the Immediate Zone" — and artificial turf is not on that plantings list or the hard-surface list.

The section right after it, 502.1.3, tells you what has to come out of that same 5 feet: "Remove all plantings including shrubs, slash, combustible mulch and other woody debris, with the exception of ignition-resistant vegetation." Read together, the Immediate Zone is meant to be a noncombustible band, not a planted or turfed one — natural grass and mulch are excluded on the same logic that would exclude synthetic turf, since neither is on the approved hard-surface list.

The code also reaches trees close to the house. Section 502.1.4 bars planting new trees inside the Immediate Zone and requires mature trees kept there to be pruned to a 10-foot crown clearance from the structure and limbed up 6 to 10 feet from the ground. None of that changes where turf can go — it is a separate requirement on the same 5-foot band.

Where this applies, and where it doesn't yet

This is a model code, not an automatic statewide law. Its own title section reads "these regulations shall be known as the Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code as adopted by [NAME OF JURISDICTION]" — a blank the state leaves for each county, city or fire district to fill in when it adopts the code locally. Section 101.2 then ties the requirement to place: it applies "within the wildland-urban interface areas of Colorado, as designated in this code," and those areas are drawn one jurisdiction at a time under Section 302.1, which puts the declaration in the hands of the local authority having jurisdiction, or AHJ.

Section 303.1 requires that mapping to be public: "Wildfire Hazard shall be recorded on official maps... available for public inspection through an accessible online platform and at designated local government offices." That is the honest answer to whether a given Golden, Ken Caryl, Castle Rock, Castle Pines or Boulder County address is covered — it depends on whether that jurisdiction has adopted the code and where its map draws the line, and DFPC's own Code Adoption & Implementation Resources page links mapping resources for checking that. We have not opened those individual county and municipal maps, and mapped status changes as jurisdictions adopt the code — ask your local building department and check DFPC's map before you plan the edge of a project.

There is a compliance deadline worth knowing, though it runs against local government, not homeowners. Under 8 CCR 1507-39 Article 6 and C.R.S. 24-33.5-1237(6), adopting governing bodies must file a compliance reporting form with the Wildfire Resiliency Code Board by 31 July 2026 certifying that they have adopted and are enforcing the code. A jurisdiction that misses it is marked "Noncompliant" — which is a reason to expect more Denver-metro jurisdictions to have adopted the code by then, not fewer.

When it bites on an existing house, not just new construction

Section 101.2 applies the code to "construction, alteration, movement, repair, maintenance and use" of a building in a mapped area, and that same section allows buildings or conditions already in existence at the time of adoption to continue their existing use or occupancy — a point Section 102.8, Existing conditions, reinforces. Section 101.4, on retroactivity, says the code applies to conditions arising after adoption, or not legally in existence at adoption, except where a specific provision states that it applies retroactively — the code is not retroactive by default, in other words, but individual sections can carve out an exception.

Two triggers use that exception mechanism to pull an existing house back in. Section 101.7 requires that when 25 percent or more of a structure's exterior wall surface area is replaced, the whole wall must be rebuilt to current material standards and, in the same sentence, "the immediate zone within 5 feet of the structure shall be made to comply with Section 503.1" — meaning the 0-5 foot noncombustible-surface rule described above applies at that point, even to a house built decades before the code existed.

Section 101.8 adds an ongoing duty once any of this is in place: "Buildings, structures, landscape materials, vegetation, defensible space or other devices or safeguards required by this code shall be maintained in conformance to the code edition under which installed." That duty runs to "the owner or the owner's authorized agent." In practice, once your 5-foot zone is built to noncombustible standard, keeping it that way — not letting debris, mulch or vegetation creep back in — is your obligation to maintain, not a one-time inspection.

None of this is retroactive on its own for a house that simply exists inside a newly mapped area and isn't remodeling. It is the wall-replacement threshold, a rebuild, or new construction that pulls the 5-foot rule forward onto an older property.

Who enforces it, and what a code official can ask for

The code is enforced locally, by whichever agency the adopting jurisdiction designates as its code compliance agency, with a code official appointed by that jurisdiction's chief appointing authority. That official has the authority to determine compliance, and under Section 104.2.1 can require the property owner to provide a technical opinion and report — prepared by a qualified engineer, specialist or fire safety specialty organization — at no charge to the jurisdiction, if there is insufficient evidence the property complies. That is the mechanism a building department would use to check a 5-foot zone at final inspection on new construction, or to follow up on a complaint.

For a homeowner planning a layout in a mapped area, the practical sequence is: confirm your address is mapped, confirm which class applies — the code separates Class 1 and Class 2 site requirements by fire intensity classification (low, moderate, high) set on the local map — and get the 5-foot material call from your building department before ordering material. Beyond 5 feet, Section 503.2, the Intermediate Zone (5-30 feet), moves to a fuel-modification standard aimed at removing dead plant material and fuel accumulations rather than mandating hard surfaces, which is a different, looser test than the Immediate Zone's noncombustible-materials list.

Where the turf edge goes in practice

If your property sits in a jurisdiction that has adopted the code and your address is mapped into a wildland-urban interface area, the honest layout is: noncombustible hard surface — gravel, rock, pavers, concrete or bare earth — for the first 5 feet out from the foundation, decks and stairs, and turf (natural or synthetic) starting past that line. That reading follows directly from Section 502.1.2's materials list and the fact that turf, natural or synthetic, doesn't appear on it.

This is also where a Denver metro layout differs town to town even within the same foothills corridor, because adoption and mapping happen jurisdiction by jurisdiction rather than as one statewide line on a map. Where a site sits in a mapped area, checking your local building department's read on Class 1 versus Class 2 and the exact 5-foot line is part of getting the layout right before a project moves forward.

This page is a plain-language summary of a fire and building code, not legal advice, and it does not tell you whether your specific address is mapped. For that determination, and for anything DFPC's own map or your jurisdiction's amendments say that isn't covered here, your local building department and DFPC's Code Adoption & Implementation Resources page are the sources to check directly.