This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at coloradosun.com.
Local governments across Colorado would be required by 2028 to enact or update ordinances limiting the amount and type of grass that could be planted around new or redeveloped residential property under a bill before the state legislature this year.
House Bill 1113 would leave it up to counties, municipalities and local districts to determine how to limit turf grass and how to define redevelopment.
The measure would also extend a prohibition on the installation of nonfunctional turf to new and redeveloped condominium and apartment complexes. It would go into effect in 2028, building off a bill passed by the legislature last year prohibiting local governments from installing nonfunctional turf on medians and right-of-ways.
Turf is considered nonfunctional under Colorado law if it’s not used for civic, community or recreational purposes. Grass used for playgrounds and sports fields are considered functional, whereas grass that lines parking lots and sidewalks is not.
The measure is the legislature’s latest effort to promote water conservation in Colorado as climate change collides with population growth. But the legislation is likely to face skepticism, if not opposition, from developers and local governments who are leery about mandates.
That makes the bill emblematic of the complicated push across the West to tackle drought and water scarcity.
“The more we look at all the little and big ways that we can be part of the solution, especially in more urban areas and densely populated areas, the better,” said state Rep. Karen McCormick, a Longmont Democrat and one of the lead sponsors of the bill.
State Rep. Lesley Smith, D-Boulder, is the other House main sponsor of the measure. State Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Avon, is the lead sponsor in the Senate.
Smith and McCormick emphasized that the measure would not affect grass installation across the board.
“All turf is not equal. Not all turf is the same,” McCormick said. “In statute, turf is defined as this continuous, growing stuff that is nonhybridized for arid conditions, that keeps growing and forms a dense root structure. There are many different new types of sod and turf that are being developed that are made for Western conditions. This does not eliminate the use of those types of grasses. It’s just that very specific, water-sucking type that wasn’t made to live in the West.”
Those water-sucking grasses are ones like Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue.
So far, the only registered support from the measure is from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental nonprofit that helped write the bill. Chelsea Benjamin, policy adviser on the healthy rivers team at WRA, said conservation is the cheapest, fastest and most reliable way to stretch water supplies.
“Most cities use about 50% of their water supplies on landscapes outdoors,” she said. “It’s a huge use of our water and we want to make sure it’s used wisely.”
The National Association of Landscape Professional and the Synthetic Turf Council are seeking changes to the measure.
The bill was assigned to the House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee. Its first hearing hasn’t been scheduled yet.
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.