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Council adopts ordinance aligning local building standards with state wildland-urban interface law
Summary
After a fire-department briefing, the council adopted Ordinance 2025-11 to incorporate the state's wildland-urban interface building standards into local code; staff said the law focuses on high-risk parcels and county-administered evaluations rather than city jurisdictional parcels.
Gunnison City Council unanimously adopted Ordinance 2025-11 to align local building standards with state wildland-urban interface (WUI) requirements stemming from House Bill 48.
Unidentified Speaker 2, representing the city’s fire department, briefed the council on the legislation and explained it aims to assign more responsibility to structure owners in high-risk WUI areas for maintaining defensible space, building materials and property conditions. The speaker noted the state’s classification focuses on structures per square mile and that, as presented, no parcels within Gunnison city limits currently fall into the state-defined 'high risk' category.
"House Bill 48 … is to deal with wildland urban interface in the state of Utah," Unidentified Speaker 2 said. "It's putting more responsibility on structure owners within this urban interface…" He added that beginning in 2028 property owners in designated high-risk areas would be evaluated and charged fees based on a 1–10 evaluation scale, and that the county will administer property evaluations and related fees.
Councilmember discussion confirmed that the city had already adopted the International Building Code by reference and that county building codes largely align with the state standard. Following the staff presentation, a motion to approve Ordinance 2025-11 was moved and seconded; the roll call produced unanimous approval and the ordinance passed.
Next steps: staff will monitor state implementation details and advise on any necessary local code amendments or enforcement processes in future council meetings.
