Lakewood Wildfire Resiliency Code
/What it is, what it does, and what could work better
A summary for Lakewood residents | Matt Haraminac, Lakewood
Lakewood is preparing to adopt a Wildfire Resiliency Code that will apply new building and landscaping standards to properties in designated wildfire risk areas. After questions were raised at the April 27th council meeting, the final vote was pushed to May 11th. That window is short, and if you own property in the mapped zone, this affects you.
I am a licensed contractor and former wildfire mitigation inspector who has spent time working through this code. I support the safety goal. I have significant concerns about how this particular code is designed, and I have submitted a detailed alternative framework to all eleven council members. This is a plain-language summary of what the code does, why I think it will underperform, and what a better version looks like.
What the code actually does
The code is permit-triggered. It does not impose immediate obligations on every home in the mapped zone. It applies when you undertake certain exterior projects and pull a permit. The main triggers are a new addition of 500 square feet or more, replacement of more than 25% of your exterior siding, and deck replacement or new deck construction. When one of these is triggered, you may be required to use fire-resistant materials, clear vegetation within five feet of the structure, prune trees in a wider buffer zone, and replace combustible fencing near the structure.
Roof replacement deserves its own clarification because it is commonly misunderstood. Replacing your roof does not trigger the defensible space or vegetation requirements. The City Engineer confirmed this explicitly at the April 27th meeting. The material requirement technically applies when more than 25% of a roof is replaced, but Lakewood already requires Class A roofing city-wide independent of the WUI code. In practice, replacing a wood shake roof with concrete tile or Class A shingles satisfies both requirements simultaneously. No site work, no vegetation removal, no additional obligation.
The code also contains a retroactivity provision, which has generated concern among residents. In practice this applies primarily to unpermitted conditions or situations the building official determines present a distinct hazard, such as severely overgrown vegetation against a structure or large amounts of stored combustible material. Proactive inspections of compliant properties are not planned.
Why this approach will underperform
A permit-triggered code can only reach homes that go through the permit system. In any given year, a small fraction of homes in the mapped zone will generate an exterior renovation permit, and those will skew toward newer, larger, and less vulnerable properties. The oldest housing stock, wood siding, aging roofs, standard mesh attic vents, represents the highest fire vulnerability and is the least likely to generate a permit trigger. After a decade of enforcement, the code will have meaningfully touched a small and unrepresentative slice of the housing stock. The homes that needed attention most will largely be untouched.
The roof exemption makes this concrete. Roofing is the single most fire-protective improvement available to an existing home, and it is also the most common exterior project in Colorado, driven by our hail climate. Every roof replacement is a natural interaction between the City and a property in the mapped zone. Under this code, that moment passes without any WUI review at all. No vent check, no foundation zone assessment, no guidance on what else could be done while the crew is already on site. The code concentrates its compliance burden on siding and decks while the highest-leverage intervention walks through the door unnoticed.
There is also a behavioral problem. Adding collateral vegetation removal, fence replacement, and material cost premiums to a siding job or deck replacement gives homeowners a strong incentive to either skip the permit or abandon the project entirely. That is not speculation. It is already happening in conversations with homeowners in the mapped zone who have seen what this code will cost them. Unpermitted work is uninspected work. A code designed to improve safety can create conditions that make homes less safe in a different dimension.
The housing affordability connection is direct. Siding replacement is one of the primary ways homeowners maintain aging housing stock. When a maintenance project that was already a significant investment starts attracting collateral costs for vegetation removal, fence replacement, and upgraded materials, many homeowners simply cannot absorb it. The result is deferred maintenance, declining housing quality, and properties that become harder to insure, harder to finance, and harder to sell. Those costs do not stay with the individual permit holder. They spread through the neighborhood.
What a better version looks like
The full alternative framework has been submitted to council. The short version is that the code should be tiered by context rather than applied uniformly, and it should pair the permit-triggered baseline with a proactive program that reaches the housing stock where permits never will.
For the state-mapped zone, the state code applies as written. For the expanded Jefferson County zone, full standards should apply to new construction, where compliance is achievable at the design stage. For existing homes in the expanded zone, any qualifying structure hardening project, including noncombustible deck assemblies, ignition-resistant siding, ember-resistant vents, or roofing upgrades, should proceed through a simplified permit pathway with no collateral vegetation removal requirements. Make the safest choices the easiest ones to permit.
On top of that, a proactive program should reach the existing housing stock directly. The highest-value intervention is ember-resistant vent retrofits, replacing standard mesh vents with ember-resistant alternatives, which is the most cost-effective hardening measure available to existing homes. Foundation zone clearance within five feet of the structure. Fire-retardant treatment for existing wooden fences as a recognized compliance pathway rather than a replacement mandate. And serious, punitive enforcement of open burning and fireworks rules, which is the most immediate ignition risk in Lakewood and currently receives essentially no enforcement attention. That gap matters more than the framing material in a deck replacement.
A point-of-sale disclosure and inspection program would also reach the housing stock far more effectively than permit triggers. Every home sale is a natural compliance moment. A third-party inspection requirement tied to real estate transactions would generate a systematic record of housing stock vulnerability and create market incentives for pre-sale hardening without adding friction to renovation permits.
What you can do before May 11th
Public comment is open through the May 11th council meeting at LakewoodSpeaks.org. You can also attend the meeting in person at Lakewood City Hall, 480 South Allison Parkway, and sign up to speak during public comment.
If you are in Ward 4, the meeting on May 9th at Green Mountain Recreation Center at 12:30 p.m. will include a staff presentation on the code. That is a good opportunity to ask questions directly before the final vote.
Matt Haraminac
Lakewood, Colorado