2026-09-10 · Colorado · Legislation · Did not pass

Colorado's two 2026 attempts to keep wildfire-code policy moving both died at the committee level, and one consequence is concrete: there is no legislative venue drafting wildfire-and-covenants bills for the 2027 session. SB26-089, which would have recreated the Wildfire Matters Review Committee, was laid over unamended in Senate Appropriations on May 14, 2026. HB26-1334, which would have let affected property owners petition the wildfire code board directly, was postponed indefinitely on April 7, 2026.¹

In Colorado, wildfire mitigation runs straight through HOA governing documents — defensible space against landscaping covenants, Class A roofing against architectural rules, ember-resistant vents and noncombustible fencing against design review. The interim committee was historically where those bills were drafted between sessions and pre-loaded for January.

The committee that no longer exists

The Wildfire Matters Review Committee repealed on September 1, 2025. SB26-089 would have recreated it with a concrete structure: ten members, five from each chamber; original appointments due no later than June 1, 2026; a minimum of two meetings and a maximum of two field trips per interim; authority to recommend up to five bills; and a repeal date of June 30, 2031. Its charge was to review the implementation and effectiveness of state wildfire-prevention policies and to recommend legislation.

It cleared the Senate Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources 5–2 on February 19, 2026, on a bipartisan sponsorship — Senators Mark Baisley and Lisa Cutter with Representative Elizabeth Velasco — and then died in Appropriations.

The petition right that did not arrive

HB26-1334 would have done three things: required an initial codes review by July 1, 2026 and subsequent reviews at minimum every three years; extended the local-government adoption deadline from April 1, 2026 to April 1, 2027; and, most significantly for owners, required a process “by which a person impacted by the codes and standards may petition the code board for a modification to the code.”

Under current law only a local government's governing body may petition. That is still the rule.

1. SB26-089, "Recreate Wildfire Matters Interim Committee" — bill page, status, structure and committee votes, Colorado General Assembly ↩
2. HB26-1334, "Modify Standards of Wildfire Resiliency Code Board" — bill page and status, Colorado General Assembly ↩
3. HB26-1331, "Modify 2026 Interim Committees" — bill page, Colorado General Assembly (became law June 2, 2026) ↩
4. Committees — the 2026 interim committee roster, Colorado General Assembly ↩
5. Wildfire Resiliency Code Board, Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control ↩