Boulder City Council staff on Tuesday outlined work completed and planned this year to reduce wildfire risk, saying the city has tightened building standards, expanded homeowner assistance programs, treated forest and grassland fuels and stepped up emergency preparedness and response.

The presentation, given at a study session by Assistant City Manager Pam Davis and staff from Open Space and Mountain Parks, Boulder Fire Rescue and the Office of Disaster Management, summarized 2025 actions and asked council members to help amplify community engagement.

Council members pressed staff for measurable goals, a clearer accounting of department spending on wildfire resilience and an assessment of cellular coverage for warning and evacuation systems.

“The city has approved new building standards, expanded financial support for homeowners, treated hundreds of acres of forest and grasslands, advanced prescribed fire projects, and strengthened our wildfire response capabilities,” Assistant City Manager Pam Davis said during the presentation.

Why this matters: Staff said wildfire in Boulder is a recurring risk and that the city’s expanded wildland-urban interface means more parcels are now considered vulnerable. The work aims to reduce risk to life, property and infrastructure through three complementary strategies: fire-adapted communities, resilient landscapes and safe, effective response.

Key details

• Home assessments and grants: Boulder Fire Rescue reported about 400 detailed home assessments completed to date and, in 2025, about 125 applications for the Wildfire Resilience Assistance grant program with roughly $175,000 spent so far this year; staff said the per-household grant maximum was raised this year from $1,000 to $2,000 and a pilot HOA program has nine applications.

• Priorities for landscape fuels: Paul Denison, wildland fire senior program manager in Open Space and Mountain Parks, said the city is prioritizing three action areas from the 2024 Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP): fuel reduction, prescribed fire and cross‑boundary projects on lands adjacent to neighborhoods, especially in the western portions of the city.

• Prescribed fire and training: Staff said this season’s work includes lower‑complexity agricultural and ditch burns to rebuild capacity and a planned landscape‑scale prescribed burn at Flatiron Vista because it already has a burn plan; Open Space Director Dan Burke said the selection was made to test coordination for larger burns before moving into more complex sites.

• Emergency response and technology: Boulder Fire Rescue said more personnel are being stood up on higher‑risk days using existing overtime and scheduling adjustments, and that the city and county have installed wildfire cameras (see alertwest.live) and RAWS weather stations. The department said a “closest unit dispatching” overhaul of CAD dispatch systems is planned to improve regional response and that go‑live is targeted for 2026.

• Outreach and resources: Public information officer Jamie Barker said the city launched a wildfire hub (bouldercolorado.gov/wildfireready) with translated preparedness guides in five languages and accessibility partnerships for blind and low‑vision residents.

Council requests and staff directions

Council made several requests staff said they would pursue: a department‑level breakdown of identified additional wildfire expenditures, an assessment of cellular coverage and coverage gaps for emergency notification within and around the city, and follow‑up on measurable targets and KPIs for fuels treatments and homeowner outreach. Staff agreed to return those items to council with more detail.

What council emphasized

Council members repeatedly asked for clearer, measurable performance indicators (for example, acres treated annually, miles of WUI perimeter mowing and the number of home assessments completed and acted upon), faster scaling of home assessment and curbside programs to reach the expanded WUI, and regular public dashboards or story maps to track progress.

Limitations/uncertainties

• Several targets discussed (for example, long‑range acreage goals across different vegetation types) are still under development and depend on vegetation type, weather windows, available burn plans and interagency coordination.

• Staff said some data are tracked through grant applications (so grant recipients are known) but that a thorough post‑assessment follow‑up rate (the share of assessed homes that complete mitigation work) is not yet available and will require additional follow‑up.

Staff and council next steps

Staff said they will prepare the requested financial breakdown and the cell‑coverage assessment, continue to scale home assessments and grant outreach, and pursue building prescribed‑fire capacity and coordination with regional partners to expand the number and complexity of burns.

“Wildfire resilience is a shared responsibility,” Public Information Officer Jamie Barker said, asking council members to help drive community engagement around preparedness and property hardening.

Byline: Reported from a Boulder City Council study session; staff presentations and Q&A on wildfire resilience. Ending: Staff said several items will return to council with more specifics and that some actions will require interagency coordination and suitable weather windows before new work can begin.