The Louisville City Council late Tuesday agreed to find a way to let residents whose homes were destroyed by the Marshall fire opt out of net-zero building code requirements that were implemented just weeks before the deadly Dec. 30 blaze.
Council members listened to more than two hours of emotional testimony from more than 60 residents, and some nonresident interested parties, who begged the council to “show compassion” and not require those who are rebuilding to pay thousands more for the energy-efficient home requirements.
“This isn’t the issue of building green versus not building green,” said Shannon Mihaly, who lost her $855,000 home at 1018 Arapahoe Circle. “You don’t have to sell us on that. We’re not anti-climate and would love to build back as energy efficiently as possible. … We just want to rebuild period.”
Mihaly said she was offended by nonresidents, or those who didn’t lose their homes, urging council members to hold fast to the 2021 building code.
“Whatever the extra cost, it may be the difference between building and not rebuilding at all,” she said. “We just want all of our neighbors to be able to return home. Period.”
The requirements of the new code, dubbed the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code, would require electric-vehicle charging ports, “electric ready” requirements, “solar ready” requirements and stringent insulation standards, among others. The new requirements, compared to the 2018 building code, would account for a “9% energy savings.” The requirements would amount to a 51% energy savings “over the predominate energy code in the early 1990s” — when most of the homes were built, according to a Louisville city staff report.
The estimates of how much extra those requirements would cost varied wildly. The city, using estimates from Group 14 Engineering, estimated it would cost a minimum of $19,867 extra for a 2,200-square-foot home. Mayor Ashley Stolzmann added that they negotiated a $7,500 rebate from Xcel Energy only for those who rebuild to the 2021 standards, among other incentives from things like rebates from heat pump manufacturers.
But several residents mentioned a letter from the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver, sent to builders, fire victims and real estate agents, that showed it would cost an extra $77,000 to build that same size home under the 2021 codes.
About 560 homes in Louisville were destroyed, and about 1,100 in all of Boulder County, by the fast-moving wildfire that charred more than 6,000 acres in a matter of hours.
Colorado Division of Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway talked early in the meeting about the severe under-insurance problem many homeowners are facing — where insurance company estimates of rebuilding costs is much lower than what builders are estimating reconstruction costs to be with the supply-chain issues, and increased costs of construction materials.
Conway said he’s asked those companies for policy limits for total losses, date of policy inception and what software program they’re using to issue policies in the first place, and also to estimate rebuilding costs.
He said they negotiated with companies to waive the onerous inventory reporting requirements for homeowners who lost everything and to advance those policyholders 60% of replacement costs for belongings in the houses.
“They agreed to both,” Conway said.
In the end, council members agreed to “give staff direction to create an opt-out program for the energy efficiency code for a grouping of homes.”
Council member Maxine Most, Ward 2, said she felt uneasy exempting a certain portion of the population from building code standards, no matter how much they deserved it.
“I’m not trying to diminish the trauma that anybody is going through,” Most said. “I’m just very uncomfortable with the idea of segmenting our community into groups of people, and giving different groups of people different standards (of building code).”
For example, if a homeowner lost their home to a “regular” house fire next week, they would be required to build back to the 2021 building code standards, she said.
But Dennis Maloney, mayor pro-tem and Ward 3, said the Marshall fire was an extreme natural disaster, and council should be nimble enough to allow for exceptions in those cases.
“You’re not going to have instances where people have to rebuild entirely from the foundation up,” Maloney said. “Now if another wildfire comes through and takes out 200 homes, yes that’s going to be a problem and we might want to do the same thing we're doing today for that group.”
Council members acknowledged the “fear and anxiety” many face trying to rebuild, and trying to make public policy decisions based on emotion.
“I’ve been called a despicable human being having never taken a position on these codes,” said Kyle Brown, Ward 3. “We all feel the palpable fear and anxiety in our residents. It’s almost as if the facts on paper here almost don’t matter. Despite the fact that we have put together what I believe is the best estimate and the mayor and our partners have gotten the best amount of funding to cover these expenses, folks are scared still.”
Maloney said even though he voted against the 2021 code, he “probably would have voted for it” knowing the cost estimates provided Tuesday.
“It’s hard for someone who’s in this position, who have lost everything, to be patient,” said Chris Leh, Ward 1. “I know that for everyone on this council their heart is broken because of what happened.”
Council member Deborah Fahey, Ward 2, lost her home to the Marshall fire. But she still favored holding to the 2021 codes for everyone.
“We’re paying them to build to the 2021 codes that, in the long run, will save them money,” Fahey said. “I’m also a little concerned about the precedent we're setting.”
Members also gave staff direction to draft an ordinance that would repeal the requirement all new-built homes must have sprinkler systems. Finally, the council ordered staff to seek grants for complying with the wildland urban interface codes for resiliency.
Members did not set a date to vote on the final ordinances and amendments.
Get more updates on The Gazette.
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