Colorado community considers HOA ban on brown lawn fines after drought declaration

The town council in one Colorado community has approved the first reading of an ordinance designed to prevent the HOA from fining residents for a brown lawn. It comes as the town is also issuing a drought advisory and declaration.

With the recent rain, residents might not be too worried about their lawn looking brown right now, but as Castle Rock just affirmed, the area is still in a drought. This is Castle Rock's first drought declaration since putting a drought management plan in place in 2018. They're asking customers to voluntarily reduce their water use by 10%.

It's a fact Castle Rock neighbor Brett Pfleger knows well: The grass is greener where you water it.

"Water is the key, obviously. So if we can't water, grass is going to be brown," said Pfleger.

Pfleger says his lawn was suffering after a record dry winter.

"Fortunately, we had some rain, and the grass has greened up, but I'm thinking it's gonna be brown pretty soon," said Pfleger.

"The precipitation helps, so I do want to stress that it helps locally, but the problem is that that snow pack acts as a giant reservoir and stores that water and doles it out over the course of the irrigation season," said Castle Rock Water Director Mark Marlowe. "When there's no snowpack, the rivers and the streams begin to run dry much more quickly. The downside with just getting rain is it's much more difficult to get that water into the reservoirs we use for storage." 

Marlowe says the rain doesn't make up for record low snowpack and high temperatures, so Castle Rock declared Stage 1 drought restrictions this week.

"It asks our citizens and customers to voluntarily work towards 10% savings on water usage," said Marlowe.

At this point, the drought declaration is just an advisory. Neighbors are still bound by the strict every-third-day watering schedule Castle Rock already enforces.

"I do it at night when we're supposed to, after 8 o'clock and before 5 o'clock. But it's not enough to keep the grass green, and it won't be for the summer," said Pfleger.

Marlowe says bluegrass can survive for six weeks without water, so even if it's brown, it can still be kept alive with minimal watering.

 "Every third day is more than enough to keep the grass doing well here in Castle Rock," said Marlowe.

Marlowe says this is a proactive move so that hopefully, more extreme measures, like water budget reduction and drought pricing, won't have to be taken later this summer.

"I think it's good, right? I think water is important. My water in the house has a very low pressure for that reason, to save water," said Pfleger.

Pfleger says his neighbors seem understanding and are already complying with water restrictions. Marlowe agrees that the community has not been upset about the conservation measures.

Castle Rock Water also asked the council to consider an ordinance that would temporarily ban HOAs and metro districts from issuing violations for brown grass during droughts.

"We don't want residents to be feeling the pressure to overwater to maintain green lawns during this very dry period, because the HOA may issue them a fine or a violation," said Marlowe.

"If everybody's grass needs to be green, or you get fined, it's an issue and a challenge," said Pfleger. "If they're going to fine us from the HOA, I don't think that's fair if they're going to restrict our water."

The ordinance wouldn't change an HOA's ability to enforce other property maintenance rules, just those about watering.

"I'm happy to hear that. I get a lot of notices from the HOA on different things. Brown grass, if I'm not allowed to water, isn't one I'd like to see," said Pfleger.

This summer, Pfleger says he hopes for as much rain as possible and does his best to keep his lawn green while following the water restrictions.

"I don't want to be the sore spot of the neighborhood. I don't think anybody does. So, absolutely, yeah, I'll try and keep it green as long as possible," said Pfleger.

If passed, the ordinance would only apply during declared droughts.

Marlowe says he hasn't received any negative feedback from any Castle Rock HOAs about this proposed ordinance.

"We have not had any pushback. We've reached out to all the HOAs, given them copies of it. So far, the only comment I've had has been a positive comment," said Marlowe.

The town council will have its second and final reading of that ordinance on June 2.