Planning board divided on Boulder ordinance updating landscaping, wildfire and water-use rules

City of Boulder staff presented a proposed ordinance and companion landscape manual intended to link wildfire hardening and water‑wise landscaping, but the Planning Board did not reach consensus on recommending it to City Council.

The presentation by Carl Geiler of Planning and Development Services recapped this year’s Wildland‑Urban Interface (WUI) updates and introduced proposed changes to Boulder Revised Code (BRC) titles concerning landscaping, water conservation and wildfire resilience. Geiler said the WUI expansion now includes more than 16,000 parcels and reiterated core technical elements: a non‑combustible zone immediately around new structures, limits on combustible vegetation in that 0‑to‑5‑foot area, low‑flammability plant requirements in the 5‑to‑30‑foot defensible space, and ignition‑resistant deck surfaces where decks are attached to buildings.

The proposed ordinance would move many technical standards out of ordinance text and into a landscape manual and a city‑manager rule (a tree and plant list) so those lists and technical specs could be updated more quickly. Geiler said the draft manual would implement recent state legislation restricting non‑functional turf and include a watering restriction prohibiting irrigation between…