Photo: Herb Saperstone/ City of Fort Collins via Colorado State University
Click the link to read the article on the Fort Collins Coloradoan website (Rebecca Powell):
January 24, 2025
In an effort to reduce water use in Fort Collins and keep landscapes looking good in the face of drought, City Council is requiring developers to mostly give up using grasses like Kentucky bluegrass and turf-type tall fescue. Council members voted Tuesday to change landscaping standards for future development and redevelopment, but the new rules won’t apply to single-family homes, duplexes or accessory dwelling units. They will apply to everything else: businesses, multifamily residential, dedicated irrigation, streetscapes and parkways…
City Council is making the change, in part, to comply with a new Colorado law that restricts high-water grass to “functional” areas like playgrounds, sports fields, picnic grounds, amphitheaters, active areas of parks and golf course playing areas…
- In addition to putting limits on high-water grasses, moderate-water grasses will also not be allowed except for in functional areas. So this rules out many of the grasses typically used for lawns in Colorado: Kentucky bluegrass, turf-type tall fescue and ryegrass.
- The changes require 50% of a landscape to consist of living plants (at maturity) to avoid full rock hardscapes.
- Areas of less than 75 square feet may not use irrigated grass at all.
- The changes will also reduce the water budget for a project to 11 gallons per square foot annually, from 15 gallons per square foot now.