A well-mitigated lot surrounded by an untreated common area is still exposed. Community-scale work changes how fire behaves across the whole subdivision — and it reaches funding that individual homeowners cannot.
A well-mitigated lot surrounded by untreated common area is still exposed, and the homeowner who paid for that work hasn't got what they paid for.
Treating at the community scale changes three things at once.
The Colorado State Forest Service is explicit: projects benefiting only one landowner do not qualify for its grant programmes.
A homeowner mitigating their own lot pays for all of it. The same work, organised as a community project, becomes eligible for cost-share funding that individuals simply cannot reach.
That is the single strongest argument most boards will hear on this subject, and it isn't ours — it's the state's own eligibility language.
Boards have finite money and competing calls on it, so the honest question isn't whether mitigation matters. It's what the association pays and what it gets.
Worth understanding before any board conversation, because it's misunderstood in both directions.
Colorado law is explicit. Under C.R.S. 38-33.3-106.5, and notwithstanding anything in the declaration, bylaws or rules to the contrary, an association shall not prohibit the removal by a unit owner of trees, shrubs or other vegetation to create defensible space around a dwelling for fire mitigation purposes.
That protection has conditions. The removal must follow a written defensible space plan created by one of three sources: the Colorado State Forest Service, an individual or company certified by a local governmental entity to create such a plan, or the fire chief, fire marshal or fire protection district for that jurisdiction. It must be no more extensive than the plan requires. And the plan must be registered with the association before work begins.
The association keeps real authority. It can require changes to the plan, but only with the consent of whoever created it. It can adopt bona fide safety requirements. And it retains authority over landscaping changes that would interfere with establishing or maintaining defensible space.
So it isn't a licence to clear-cut, and it isn't an association veto either. It's a framework: get a qualified plan, register it, follow it.
We're certified by Jefferson County to create these plans, which places us in the second category above. A plan we write for a Jeffco property carries statutory weight an ordinary contractor's proposal does not.
We're a mitigation contractor, not a law firm. For a genuine dispute, or for communities created before July 1992 where CCIOA applies differently, talk to an attorney who does HOA work.
Some homeowners arrive here having already been told no.
The usual pattern is a covenant written decades ago to preserve a wooded character, applied by a board that hasn't revisited it since the fire environment changed. Sometimes there's a genuine safety or drainage reason. Often, nobody has simply put a proper plan in front of them.
What generally resolves it is exactly what the statute describes: a written defensible space plan from a qualified source, registered with the association before work starts. That moves the conversation from "I'd like to cut some trees" to a documented plan the association has limited authority to refuse.
We'll walk your property, write the plan, and tell you honestly what's actually necessary — usually less than homeowners fear and more than boards expect. If your association has questions, we'll talk to them directly.
Most communities need both, and they're different jobs.
Common areas are the association's own ground — greenbelts, open space, drainage corridors, entry landscaping, and the buffer between the subdivision and whatever adjoins it. This is the association's decision alone and usually where a programme starts.
Access routes matter more than boards expect. Many foothills subdivisions have one road in and one road out, often narrow and overhung. Roadside clearance affects whether residents can leave and whether apparatus can get in. In several counties it's inspected.
Individual lots are the homeowners' own ground. Some communities coordinate a voluntary programme at a negotiated rate; others simply make it easier for owners to act.
Ignition zones around structures are where survival is actually decided, and they're on private lots. A programme that treats common areas beautifully and leaves the first five feet around every house untouched has missed the point.
We'll scope whichever combination fits, and tell you where the money is best spent.
Some communities want a formal plan before committing to work, and for larger ones that's the right sequence.
A Community Wildfire Protection Plan is authorised under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. Colorado recognises them at three scales — county, fire protection district, and local, which explicitly includes HOAs and subdivisions.
What it gets a community. Priority for hazardous fuels funding under the Act. The ability to define your own wildland-urban interface boundary rather than accepting a mapped one. A voice in how surrounding federal and non-federal land gets treated. And a prioritised, agreed document to budget against over several years instead of deciding project by project.
What it involves. Collaborative development involving local government, the local fire authority, the Colorado State Forest Service, and any federal land manager with ground nearby. Prioritised fuel reduction across the planning area. And recommendations addressing structural ignitability, not just vegetation.
We write them and we run the process, including the coordination with your fire district, the county and the state forest service that getting a plan agreed actually requires.
This is different from a defensible space plan. Those are property-specific documents for individual homes. A CWPP is community-wide strategy. Larger communities usually want both.
A board shouldn't have to guess at any of this. Before you decide anything:
None of that costs anything and none of it commits you.
We'd rather a board understood the limits of this than oversold it.
Mitigation does not fireproof a community. It changes how fire behaves — whether it arrives in the canopy or on the ground, whether crews can work in it, whether embers find fuel against the buildings. Those differences decide outcomes, and they are not a guarantee.
What a board can reasonably expect: a measurably different fire environment, a documented position for members dealing with insurers, eligibility for funding individuals cannot reach, and a prioritised plan that turns an open-ended problem into a budget line.
What no contractor can promise is that your community will not burn.
Can our HOA stop homeowners from creating defensible space?A: Generally no, where the removal follows a written plan from a qualified source and is registered with the association before work begins. The association can require changes only with the consent of whoever wrote the plan, and it keeps authority over genuine safety matters. Communities created before July 1992 may be treated differently.
Who writes a qualifying plan?A: The Colorado State Forest Service, the fire chief, fire marshal or fire protection district, or a company certified by a local governmental entity. We're certified by Jefferson County.
How much might be grant funded?A: It depends on the program, the scope and the timing. State cost-share commonly runs at a 25% or 50% match depending on where you sit, and federal planning grants at 10%. Nothing is guaranteed, and the application usually has to precede the work.
Can our association apply for funding itself?A: Yes. Homeowner associations are eligible applicants for federal Community Wildfire Defense Grants, and community groups are eligible for the state cost-share programme. We'll tell you which fits.
Do you work with property management companies?A: Yes. Tell us who manages the community and we'll work through them.
Will you attend a board meeting?A: Yes, including evenings. It's usually the most efficient hour anyone spends on this.
HOA and community wildfire mitigation across the Colorado foothills — Evergreen, Conifer, Bailey, Golden, Woodland Park and Nederland — and throughout Jefferson, Park, Teller, Boulder, Larimer, Douglas and El Paso counties.
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