Commerce City, CO Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Section 6-2012 defines brush, in subsection (a)(1), as cuttings from trees or bushes, including fallen branches more than two inches thick at the widest point and three feet long, and stacks of wood, other than milled lumber, once firewood exceeds two neatly stacked cords. Subsection (b)(4) then sets the clock: it is unlawful for the owner or occupant of any property to permit brush to remain on the "extended property," meaning the lot plus the adjacent public right-of-way to the street centerline, for more than fourteen days.

The rule is separate from the general garbage and trash removal duty in section 6-2003, which requires trash pickup at intervals no longer than thirty days and secure, watertight storage between collections; brush gets its own, shorter fourteen-day clock because uncleared cuttings and woodpiles are treated as a distinct nuisance risk. A violation of the brush rule is a civil infraction under section 6-1003, which the city can pursue in municipal court or through its administrative hearing process on a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard. If the brush sits on public property, in the right-of-way, or poses an imminent hazard, section 6-1004 lets the city abate it without prior notice or a hearing and then bill the property owner for the abatement cost plus a fifteen percent administrative fee under the section 3-2103 collection procedure.

Where chapter 6 sets no specific dollar penalty of its own, Section 1-5's citywide general penalty applies: up to a three-hundred-dollar fine, up to ninety days in jail, or both, with each day of a continuing violation a separate offense.