Colorado HOA Water Conservation

Section 1: Overview — How water conservation interacts with HOA authority in Colorado

Colorado limits association authority over water-wise landscaping through the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act, or CCIOA, principally C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5, which bars an association from prohibiting xeriscape, nonvegetative turf grass, drought-tolerant landscapes, and rain barrels on property a unit owner is responsible for.¹ Senate Bill 23-178 (2023) reinforced that protection with detailed limits for detached single-family homes, and Senate Bill 24-005 (2024) and House Bill 25-1113 (2025) pushed further with nonfunctional-turf restrictions.^2,12,13 Colorado is a drought-exposed headwaters state at the top of the Colorado River system, and that scarcity shapes the policy climate — though the water-supply framework is background here, not the rule that governs associations.^7,8 The volume of recent legislation — three enacted measures across three consecutive sessions — marks this as an active area rather than a settled one.^2,12,13 The state's prior-appropriation water-rights system, administered by the water courts and the State Engineer, allocates water among users — it does not determine whether an association may restrict a homeowner's landscaping, which § 38-33.3-106.5 governs.^1,7 Colorado sits among the prominent protective states, alongside California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Utah, and stands apart from silent states where landscaping is controlled only by recorded covenants.¹ What follows states the exact statutory scope, the reasonable standards an association may still impose, the separate water-supply background, and where owner-facing water rules actually originate.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. Statutory limits on HOA authority over water-efficient landscaping

C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5, titled "Prohibitions contrary to public policy," opens with the phrase "Notwithstanding any provision in the declaration, bylaws, or rules and regulations of the association to the contrary, an association shall not prohibit" a listed set of owner activities.¹ Among those: using xeriscape, nonvegetative turf grass, or drought-tolerant landscapes as ground cover on property a unit owner is responsible for, and using a rain barrel.¹ Two subsections carry the landscaping rule — subsection (1)(i) applies to a single-family home that shares one or more walls with another unit, and subsection (1)(i.5), added by SB 23-178, applies to a detached single-family home.^1,2 Condominiums are excluded from the detached-home provision.¹

SB 23-178, signed May 17, 2023 and effective August 7, 2023, is the measure that put specific numeric limits into subsection (1)(i.5).² For detached single-family homes, an association's design or aesthetic guidelines must not prohibit nonvegetative turf grass in the backyard, must not unreasonably require hardscape on more than 20 percent of the landscaping area, must allow an option consisting of at least 80 percent drought-tolerant plantings, and must not prohibit vegetable gardens in the front, back, or side yard.^1,2 The same subsection requires each association to select at least three preplanned water-wise garden designs, preapproved for front-yard installation, drawn from sources such as the Colorado State University Extension Plant Select list or a local water provider's program.¹ SB 24-005 (2024) and HB 25-1113 (2025) address a different target — nonfunctional turf on new development — covered in Section 4.^12,13

An association retains real authority within these limits. It may adopt and enforce design or aesthetic guidelines, regulate the type, number, and placement of drought-tolerant plantings and hardscapes, restrict nonvegetative turf grass to rear-yard locations, and require architectural review of a landscaping change.¹ It may also impose bona fide safety requirements, protect fire buffers and defensible space, and protect existing grading and drainage.¹ The protection bars prohibiting water-wise landscaping — it doesn't abolish review or turn a yard into an unregulated space.

These provisions operate as mandatory limits, not defaults the declaration may vary. The "notwithstanding any provision in the declaration" language makes a conflicting covenant unenforceable to the extent of the conflict.¹ The companion water statute is explicit: C.R.S. § 37-60-126(11)(a) declares that any restrictive-covenant provision prohibiting or limiting xeriscape, limiting drought-tolerant landscapes, or requiring cultivated vegetation to be exclusively or primarily turf grass is contrary to public policy and unenforceable.⁵ For detached homes, a unit owner affected by a knowing violation may, after 45 days' written notice to cure, bring a civil action to recover up to $500 or actual damages, whichever is greater.¹ Rain barrels get authorized separately: C.R.S. § 37-96.5-103 permits up to two barrels with a combined storage capacity of 110 gallons, for outdoor use such as lawn and garden irrigation, on the property where the precipitation is collected.³ Section 38-33.3-106.5(1)(j) protects that use from association prohibition while allowing reasonable aesthetic rules on placement and appearance.¹

2B. Water supply, drought response, rainwater and graywater

As background on water supply: Colorado follows pure prior appropriation, the "Colorado Doctrine," rooted in article XVI, sections 5 and 6 of the state constitution and administered by the Division of Water Resources (Office of the State Engineer) through seven water divisions, with adjudication in Colorado's separate water courts and planning by the Colorado Water Conservation Board.^7,8 Colorado is a headwaters state and the largest Upper Basin entitlement holder under the Colorado River Compact.⁸ This body of law explains why Colorado is water-conscious, but it allocates water among users — it does not govern an association's authority over a homeowner's landscaping, which § 38-33.3-106.5 and the 2023-to-2025 legislation set.¹

A declared water shortage does reach private-landscaping enforcement, and this rule is verified rather than assumed. C.R.S. § 37-60-126(11)(c) provides that although an association may take enforcement action against a unit owner who lets existing landscaping die or go dormant, no enforcement action may require the owner to water in violation of water-use restrictions the jurisdiction has declared, enforcement must be consistent and not arbitrary, and the owner must get a reasonable and practical opportunity to reseed and revive turf before being required to re-sod.⁵

Rain barrels sit within the § 38-33.3-106.5 protection. HB 16-1005 (2016) added article 96.5 to title 37, and § 37-96.5-103 authorizes up to two rain barrels totaling 110 gallons for residential outdoor use; the HOA-authority question gets answered directly by § 38-33.3-106.5(1)(j), which bars prohibition while allowing reasonable placement and appearance rules.^1,3

Graywater is regulated as a systems matter, not as an HOA-authority question. The Colorado Water Quality Control Commission's Regulation 86 (5 CCR 1002-86) sets treatment and control standards for graywater reuse, and local governments must opt in by ordinance before graywater systems get permitted locally.⁴ No provision of Regulation 86 or CCIOA specifically limits an association's authority over graywater systems, so any such control would come from the declaration and architectural review rather than from a landscaping-protection statute.^4,1

2C. Where water-conservation rules actually live in Colorado

Even with § 38-33.3-106.5 and the 2023-to-2025 legislation in force, the recorded declaration and the association's architectural-control process remain central to day-to-day operations — they just operate only within the statutory limits.¹ A covenant that prohibits xeriscape or drought-tolerant landscaping is unenforceable; a design standard that regulates plant type, number, and placement without prohibiting water-wise landscaping is not.^1,5 The order of precedence runs from the mandatory CCIOA protections, to the declaration and architectural standards to the extent they're consistent with those protections, and then to rules and bylaws.¹

Because most Colorado associations organize as nonprofit corporations, the Colorado Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act, C.R.S. § 7-121-101 et seq., governs corporate matters like meetings, elections, and board authority — but only at the corporate level, and it doesn't address landscaping.¹⁴ The practical source of any owner-facing water-use rule is the local retail water provider. Denver Water's summer rules, running May 1 to October 1, limit watering to no more than three days a week and prohibit it between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.; on March 25, 2026 its Board declared a Stage 1 drought, imposing mandatory two-days-per-week outdoor watering restrictions and temporary drought pricing on outdoor use through April 30, 2027.⁹ Aurora Water's Grass Replacement Incentive Program, or GRIP, pays $3 per square foot for a traditional water-wise landscape and $0.50 per square foot for a water-wise grass landscape, with projects requiring pre-approval before installation.¹⁰ Colorado Springs Utilities' Water Wise Rules allow watering up to three days a week — May 1 to October 15, before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. — and customers who violate the rules may be fined $100.¹¹ These operate independently of the CCIOA framework. The operational takeaway: a Colorado manager has to read § 38-33.3-106.5, the 2023-to-2025 legislation, the declaration, and the local water provider's rules together, and may not enforce a covenant that CCIOA overrides.¹

Section 3: What the framework requires of HOAs

A. Landscaping approval and architectural review

An association may not prohibit xeriscape, nonvegetative turf grass, or drought-tolerant landscapes as ground cover on property the owner is responsible for — a mandatory statutory limit, and a conflicting covenant is unenforceable to the extent of the conflict.¹ It may adopt and enforce design, aesthetic, and placement standards, regulate the type, number, and placement of drought-tolerant plantings and hardscapes, and require architectural review, so long as the standards aren't inconsistent with water-wise landscaping.¹ For detached single-family homes specifically, guidelines must allow an at-least-80-percent drought-tolerant option, must not unreasonably require hardscape on more than 20 percent of the area, and must include at least three preapproved front-yard designs.^1,2

B. Drought response and watering restrictions

An association may not take enforcement action that would require an owner to water in violation of a jurisdiction's declared water-use restriction.⁵ An owner whose turf is dead or dormant from insufficient watering must get a reasonable and practical opportunity to reseed and revive it before being required to re-sod.⁵ Watering schedules, drought stages, and turf-replacement rebates come from the local water provider — Denver Water, Aurora Water, Colorado Springs Utilities — not from the association.^9,10,11

C. Rule adoption and disclosure

Associations must register annually with the Division of Real Estate's HOA Information and Resource Center under C.R.S. § 38-33.3-401; the Center is informational and registration-only and doesn't adjudicate landscaping disputes.¹⁵ Design guidelines and any preapproved water-wise designs should be adopted as written rules and, for detached-home communities, posted on the association's public website if it has one.¹ Corporate governance of the rule-adopting body falls to the Colorado Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act for associations organized as nonprofits.¹⁴

D. Enforcement limits and conflicts

A covenant requiring cultivated vegetation to be exclusively or primarily turf grass is contrary to public policy and unenforceable.⁵ A rain-barrel prohibition is unenforceable too; an association may impose only reasonable placement and appearance rules.^1,3 The § 38-33.3-106.5 and SB 23-178 protections are mandatory limits, not defaults the declaration may vary — for detached homes, a knowing violation supports a civil action for up to $500 or actual damages after a 45-day notice to cure.¹

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent rulings

No qualifying published opinion of the Colorado Court of Appeals or the Colorado Supreme Court from the past 36 months construes § 38-33.3-106.5, § 37-60-126, or association landscaping authority in the water context. SB 23-178's private right of action took effect only in August 2023, so appellate authority hasn't had time to develop — this reflects the absence of published appellate authority as of the verification date and doesn't account for unpublished or trial-level decisions.¹

C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal in the current window would further change Colorado's treatment of HOA water-conservation landscaping beyond the enacted SB 24-005 and HB 25-1113 turf provisions.^12,13

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Within a water-conservation-specific clustering, Colorado belongs in the first tier: drought-exposed states with statutory owner protections bearing on water-efficient landscaping, alongside California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Utah — and it's among the most active of them, distinct from states with partial or emerging provisions and from silent, CC&R-governed states.¹ Colorado's distinctive posture is a single unified CCIOA carrying a water-landscaping protection at § 38-33.3-106.5, reinforced by 2023 legislation on water-wise landscaping and by 2024 and 2025 legislation pushing further into nonfunctional-turf restrictions — a stronger and more recent framework than the architectural-review-plus-declaration posture of a silent state.^1,2,12,13 For a firm entering Colorado from a silent state, the practical point is direct: the assumption that an association controls landscaping by covenant doesn't hold, because § 38-33.3-106.5 and the 2023-to-2025 legislation constrain the association itself.¹

HOA Weekly's Colorado water-conservation coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly and the Colorado courts act, and as the 2024 and 2025 turf legislation takes effect through its 2026 and 2028 compliance dates. Colorado operators must apply § 38-33.3-106.5 and the 2023-to-2025 legislation and read the declaration and local water-provider rules alongside the statute. Federal frameworks apply to Colorado associations regardless of state law — the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act among them.

Footnotes

1. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5, Prohibitions contrary to public policy (Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act), current text including subsections (1)(i), (1)(i.5), and (1)(j), sourced to the Colorado General Assembly 2024 Title 38 publication ↩
2. SB 23-178, "Water-wise Landscaping In Homeowners' Association Communities," 2023 Regular Session, Colorado General Assembly (Approved May 17, 2023; Effective August 7, 2023) ↩
3. Colorado Division of Water Resources, "Rainwater, Storm Water & Graywater," describing HB 16-1005 and C.R.S. § 37-96.5-103 (up to two rain barrels, 110-gallon combined capacity, outdoor residential use) ↩
4. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, "Regulation 86 – Graywater Control" (5 CCR 1002-86); local opt-in requirement ↩
5. C.R.S. § 37-60-126, Water conservation and drought mitigation planning, subsection (11)(a) (restrictive covenants requiring turf grass contrary to public policy) and (11)(c) (enforcement limits during declared water-use restrictions) ↩
6. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-101, Short title, Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (C.R.S. § 38-33.3-101 et seq.) ↩
7. Colorado Division of Water Resources, "Water Administration," on the prior-appropriation doctrine administered by the State Engineer through seven water divisions ↩
8. Colorado Water Conservation Board, "Colorado River Basin," on Colorado's Upper Basin and headwaters status ↩
9. Denver Water, "Rules for Outdoor Water Use," summer watering rules (three days per week; no watering 10 a.m.–6 p.m.) and March 25, 2026 Stage 1 drought (mandatory two-days-per-week restrictions and drought pricing through April 30, 2027) ↩
10. City of Aurora, "Grass Replacement Incentive Program (GRIP)," $3/sq ft for a traditional water-wise landscape and $0.50/sq ft for a water-wise grass landscape, with required pre-approval ↩
11. Colorado Springs Utilities, "Water Wise Rules," up to three days per week (May 1–Oct. 15, before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m.), $100 fine for violations ↩
12. SB 24-005, "Prohibit Landscaping Practices for Water Conservation," 2024 Regular Session, Colorado General Assembly (Approved March 15, 2024; Effective August 7, 2024) ↩
13. HB 25-1113, "Limit Turf in New Residential Development," 2025 Regular Session, Colorado General Assembly (Governor Signed May 20, 2025; session-law effective date August 6, 2025) ↩
14. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 7, Colorado Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act, C.R.S. § 7-121-101 et seq. (Colorado General Assembly) ↩
15. Colorado Division of Real Estate, "HOA Center," describing the HOA Information and Resource Center's registration and informational functions under C.R.S. § 38-33.3-401 and its non-regulatory, non-adjudicative role ↩