Commerce City, CO Fire Regulations: Propane Storage (2026)

Section 21-5212 of the Commerce City Land Development Code governs every above-ground storage tank sited within city limits, not just fuel-service stations. Any property owner who wants to keep a propane or other flammable-gas tank must stay under 10,000 cubic feet of capacity; crossing that threshold triggers a mandatory conditional use permit application to the Community Development Department, reviewed alongside the standard land-use table, which already lists above-ground storage tanks of propane less than 10,000 cubic feet capacity as an allowed use across every residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural and public zone district.

Liquid-storage tanks fall under a parallel limit: no single tank may exceed 12,000 gallons without its own conditional use permit, and the code sets a hard outer boundary of 48,000 gallons per parcel, available only where the lot is at least three acres and zoned I-3, Heavy Industrial. Placement is restricted too: tanks holding liquid materials must sit in a side or rear yard, never the front, and all tanks, regardless of contents, must meet the city's adopted building and fire code requirements before installation.

Refueling vehicles directly from an above-ground tank is allowed only to the extent the fire and building codes the city has adopted authorize it, tying the LDC provision back into Chapter 5 of the Revised Municipal Code. The section was last amended by Ordinance No. 1854 in April 2011. Because the rule sits in the zoning code rather than the fire code, a property owner exceeding the cubic-foot or gallon thresholds is out of compliance with both their zoning entitlement and the fire code adopted separately in Chapter 5, so an oversized tank can draw scrutiny from Community Development and the fire marshal at the same time.