On May 17, Senate Bill 23-178 was signed into Colorado law addressing water-wise landscaping in Homeowners’ Association communities with single family detached dwellings (like Creekside). The Board and the Design Review Committee (DRC) are in the early stages of determining how to best implement these new rules but we wanted to let you know that we’re aware of them and are working out compliance. We expect the details to be in place and communicated to you well before the August 9 legal deadline.
SB 23-178 states in part that an association’s guidelines now cannot:
- Prohibit the use of nonvegetative turf grass in the backyard of a property
- Unreasonably require the use of hardscape on more than 20% of the landscaping area of a property
- Prevent a homeowner from choosing an option that consists of at least 80% drought-tolerant plantings
- Prohibit vegetable gardens in the front, back, or side yard of a unit owner’s property
Another requirement of interest is that the HOA needs to select a minimum of three pre-planned water-wise garden designs that will be pre-approved for installation in Creekside front yards.
While the language of the bill is very clear and the HOA will abide by it, please know that there will be no change to how you will request and get approval to implement any proposed exterior modifications. These requests must still be submitted via a Project Submission Form to the DRC.
These are just some of the highlights from the bill. Here’s the complete bill if you’d like to review it in full: https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2023a_178_signed.pdf
More details about how the bill will be implemented in Creekside to come.
A special Thank You to Renee Hartsook for bringing the passage of this bill to the Board’s attention.