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Water Rights Resources

Water law is complex, nuanced, and can be difficult to understand. We delve into common water law concepts and provide tutorials that describe how it use publicly available tools to learn more about water rights. To this end, below are a series of articles that are designed to help parties develop a general understanding of some of the basic principles of water law. The information provided below is for educational purposes only and if you have specific questions about your water rights, please contact the attorneys at Nazarenus Stack & Wombacher for legal advice. Use of this information is explicitly subject the website disclaimer available at this link https://www.nswlaw.com/disclaimer

Current Events: House Bill 25-1113 (Limiting the Use of Certain Landscaping Practices in New Residential Development)

In recent years, the Colorado General Assembly has evaluated ways to reduce the water demands of new development in an effort to both reduce costs for new development and extend the life of Colorado’s limited water supply. As part of this effort, on May 20, 2025, Governor Polis signed House Bill 25-1113 (“HB25-1113” or the “Bill”) into law. The purpose of this Bill is to create new rules regarding the types of landscaping that can be installed in new residential and commercial developments.

The Bill makes the following changes:

(1) Beginning January 1, 2026, the Bill prohibits “local entities,” which includes cities, counties, towns, special districts, and metropolitan districts, from installing, planting, placing, or allowing others to install, plant, or place, non-functional turf (including non-functional artificial turf) on any “applicable property” within the “local entities’” jurisdiction.
“Applicable property” is defined to apply to commercial, institutional, industrial, common interest property, street rights of way, parking lots, medians, and transportation corridors.
“Non-functional turf” is defined as turf other than that which is used for a playground, sports field, picnic ground, amphitheater, park, and the playing area of a golf course.
The same rules apply to the construction or renovation of Colorado state owned properties.
This limitation does not prevent the maintenance of existing non-functional turf.

(2) Beginning January 1, 2028, the prohibition on non-functional turf will be expanded to include “multifamily residential housing premises property,” which is defined as entry ways, parks, and other common elements associated with a property that includes more than 12 dwelling units.

(3) Beginning January 1, 2028, “local entities” with land use authority will be required to enact or amend laws regulating new development and redevelopment to regulate the installation of turf on all residential property to reduce irrigated water demand.
Although the Bill does not dictate the type of regulations that must be passed, we assume that many local entities may adopt strict landscaping standards for new residential development.
This would mean that houses built in 2028 and after will likely have far less irrigated landscape.

(4) The Bill does allow for the installation of turf that is a native plant, has been hybridized for arid conditions, or is a low water grass.

We expect that this Bill will result in low water landscaping throughout Colorado, beginning in 2028.

For developers, this may mean that their development costs related to water will be reduced because the water demands for irrigation, which is typically 50% or more of the water demands for a residential property, will be greatly reduced.

For home buyers and owners, this means that the landscaping for new development is likely to look much different from the green irrigated lawns that are commonplace today.

If you have questions about HB25-1113, please reach out to the attorneys at NSW Law.

Chase W