Boulder staff outline first building-decarbonization ordinance update for large buildings

Boulder officials are moving from broad climate-roadmap planning toward a first ordinance update on building decarbonization, with city staff telling the Environmental Advisory Board on June 3 that the initial revision is expected to focus on buildings larger than 50,000 square feet and could reach City Council later this year or early next year.

That would be a more concrete next step than the city’s recent roadmap discussions. On its Healthy Buildings, Stronger Community roadmap page, the city says its 2026 “early wins” include aligning Boulder’s Building Performance Ordinance with state standards for commercial and multifamily buildings over 50,000 square feet, exempting BPO-regulated multifamily buildings from SmartRegs, and updating the SmartRegs checklist for new rental licenses only.

At the June 3 meeting, staff said Boulder’s likely near-term approach is to use the same 2030 targets as Colorado for large covered buildings rather than create a separate local standard immediately. Staff member Laurel Mattrey told the board the state program already offers more than one compliance pathway and said Boulder would likely mirror those targets for now while studying whether stricter post-2030 standards are needed to meet the city’s climate goals.

Under Colorado’s Building Performance Colorado program, most commercial buildings 50,000 square feet and larger must benchmark energy use and work toward sectorwide performance targets intended to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 7% by 2026 and 20% by 2030, compared with 2021 levels. The state also allows “deemed compliance” in some cases; the Colorado Energy Office says Denver’s local program already qualifies.

Staff told the advisory board Boulder believes it could seek a similar arrangement by showing that its local ordinance achieves the state program’s broader outcome. In practice, staff said, that would not necessarily require copying every state rule word for word. Instead, the city expects to keep the state’s near-term targets for large buildings while writing local rules on enforcement, timelines and alternative compliance pathways around Boulder’s existing programs and local building-performance data.

The city also said it has new funding to support that work. Staff told the board Boulder received a $1.5 million share of a Denver Regional Council of Governments building-electrification grant. In a 2024 announcement, Boulder said DRCOG had secured a roughly $200 million EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant for regional building decarbonization work. The EPA says the project includes support for local governments advancing building policies, rebates and energy advising.

At the June 3 meeting, staff said Boulder plans to use its share for policy analysis, technical review and implementation support, including consultant work on the building-performance ordinance, SmartRegs and possible end-of-useful-life replacement policies for heating and cooling equipment. Staff said consultants are already analyzing Boulder’s building stock and potential ordinance updates.

For building owners concerned about costs, staff described several flexibilities and support programs, especially for nonprofits, affordable-housing providers and other “equity-priority” buildings. Staff pointed to existing support through EnergySmart and Partners for a Clean Environment, along with plans for building-specific audits, data-verification help, tune-up programs, financing guidance, tax-credit assistance and concierge-style help for lower-resource buildings.

Staff also told the board they want to account for replacement timing, not simply require immediate equipment swaps. They said Boulder is studying end-of-useful-life approaches so owners already making a required replacement can better understand the incremental cost of choosing electric equipment instead of gas. Staff said that approach is intended to reduce the risk of expensive premature upgrades.

Those support measures could be central to the policy’s impact because staff repeatedly said they are trying to avoid unintended consequences. Senior manager Carol Neil told the board the city is not trying to “drive buildings out of the community” and wants compliance options that “set everybody up for success.” Staff said that includes special attention to affordable housing, homeless shelters and other buildings with fewer internal resources.

The SmartRegs piece appears narrower, at least for now. Staff told the board the city is considering changes only for new rental licenses, not a broad rewrite for existing rentals. The city’s roadmap page says that phase would update the SmartRegs checklist to promote efficient electric heating and cooling for new rental licenses only.

Based on staff’s description, that change may have limited short-term effect. Officials told the board they are still analyzing how many truly new licenses for existing buildings are issued each year, and said many units counted as new licenses are newly built apartments or condos already exempt from SmartRegs because new construction is built to current code standards. Staff said the city may see only “a half dozen” technically new licenses for existing buildings each year.

The existing SmartRegs prescriptive checklist already allows some room for electric technologies and innovation measures, but staff said parts of the scoring system reflect older categories that may no longer align with current technology and policy goals. At the June 3 meeting, staff said Boulder has already added bonus-point options for heat pumps and is considering whether to further change how gas and electric appliances are scored.

For tenants, the immediate effect is less clear. Staff said SmartRegs was originally designed as a renter-protection and energy-affordability policy, not only an emissions rule, and they repeatedly raised concerns about cooling access, utility bills and displacement. Officials also told the board that Colorado’s limits on rent control constrain what Boulder can directly require, though the city is studying incentives, voluntary agreements tied to city funding, and a separate displacement-mitigation toolkit.

What remains unknown is the ordinance language itself. Boulder has not yet released a draft showing what compliance alternatives, hardship provisions, timeline adjustments or exemptions it may offer large building owners, nonprofits or affordable-housing providers. Nor has the city yet shown whether Boulder-specific rules would differ materially from the state system beyond added technical support and local administration.

Still, the June 3 presentation points to a clearer next milestone: a first ordinance update for the city’s largest covered buildings, backed by grant funding and a stated effort to pair requirements with compliance support rather than rely on a long-range roadmap alone.