Commissioners review updated countywide wildfire plan and plan to consider adopting state WUI code

Clear Creek County commissioners reviewed a 2025 update to the countywide Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) during their July 1 meeting and discussed adopting the state'level Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) building code.

Why it matters: The CWPP update identifies priority operational areas for home-hardening and landscape-scale fuel reduction, and a current CWPP is required by many state and federal grant programs and by the U.S. Forest Service before the agency will partner on mitigation work on federal lands.

What county staff presented County and fire authority staff said the 2008 CWPP had become out of date for grant and interagency use. The updated 2025 CWPP used recent datasets, including 2024 flyover and LiDAR inputs, to identify neighborhood-scale and watershed-scale priorities. The updated plan breaks the county into operational areas and lists near-term mitigation priorities, such as the Arrastra/Mill Creek focus area and slopes above Idaho Springs. Jeremy Jones (fire mitigation lead) said the update was designed to be a living document that local governments, fire districts and the Forest Service can use to sequence work and be grant-ready.

Commission discussion and WUI code The board discussed next steps including municipal sign-off (Idaho Springs, Georgetown, Empire, Silver Plume) and a 5-year review cycle. Commissioners asked staff to add clearer language on funding needs and on cooperating with major water rights holders to protect watershed infrastructure in the event of a fire.

The board also discussed the state'adopted WUI code (the 2024 edition of the International WUI Code). County staff recommended studying the code and returning with a joint recommendation from the county building official and the fire authority because the code affects both permitting/land-use and fire-code enforcement. Commissioners signaled they are open to adopting a WUI code that tightens building and vegetation standards in high-risk areas but asked staff to return with analysis on enforcement workload and the code's effects on smaller, historic properties.

Next steps Staff will bring back revisions and more detailed funding language in the CWPP and a recommended approach to any local WUI code adoption. The CWPP draft will also be discussed with municipal councils for required local concurrence before the county adopts the plan.