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Ouray County aims to adopt state'aligned low-energy building code; asks for short extension and schedules work session
Summary
County staff and EcoAction Partners briefed commissioners on the 2025 Model Low Energy Carbon Code (MLECC) and recommended asking the state for a three-month extension to meet grant deadlines; the board set a May 13 work session and a May 26 hearing and committed to pursue adoption by resolution with local amendments.
County staff, the county attorney and EcoAction Partners briefed the Board of County Commissioners on April 14 about adopting the 2025 Model Low Energy and Carbon Code (MLECC) as an update to the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code.
Attorney Caselli and planner staff explained the codebook is approximately 400 pages and that the county can adopt the MLECC by resolution rather than ordinance. Kendra Held of EcoAction Partners told the board the regional cohort has prepared an amendment "menu" and an amendment-tracker spreadsheet staff can use to compare neighbor jurisdictions’ choices. "We created a tracker for the different jurisdictions," she said, offering staff the cohort's templates and outreach support.
Staff recommended asking the state for a three-month extension to the June 30 grant deadline as a contingency while scheduling a work session for May 13 followed by a public hearing on May 26. Commissioners agreed asking for the extension was prudent and directed staff to coordinate with EcoAction Partners and land-use staff on the timeline and materials.
The board discussed practicalities of local amendments (frost-depth engineering, wildfire, propane and window-area policy choices) and noted the state statute requires adoption when certain building-code updates occur. Staff said adopting by resolution and incorporating local amendments in an appendix would shorten the apparent length of required published material and enable compliance with the grant terms.
EcoAction Partners also offered a June 11 training for building and planning professionals; the board asked staff to provide the amendment tracker for the May 13 work session. No formal vote was required; the board's direction was to request the extension and proceed with the scheduled outreach steps.
Next steps: work session (May 13), public hearing (May 26), and potential resolution adoption (timing dependent on amendment workload and any requested extension).
