Fort Collins, CO Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

5), rewrote what a Fort Collins homeowners association can require in its landscaping guidelines for single-family detached homes (attached townhomes and condominiums remain under the older, narrower subsection (1)(i)(I)(A)). An HOA may still adopt design or aesthetic guidelines and regulate the type, number and placement of plantings and hardscape, but those guidelines must satisfy four floors: they cannot prohibit nonvegetative turf grass in the backyard, cannot require hardscape on more than 20 percent of the landscaped area, must let an owner choose a design that is at least 80 percent drought-tolerant plantings, and cannot ban vegetable gardens in the front, back or side yard.

§ 37-60-135(2)(l), drawn from Colorado State University Extension's Plant Select "downloadable designs" list, a municipality, a utility, or a similar source, and post information about the preapprovals on its website if it has one. Choosing one of those preapproved designs is automatically treated as meeting the HOA's aesthetic guidelines, and an owner may substitute a reasonable plant if one in the design is unavailable. The mandate carves out HOA authority over bona fide safety codes, fire-buffer and defensible-space requirements, and existing grading, drainage or other structural landscape elements needed to protect people and property, so an association can still block a design that creates a fire or drainage hazard.