New Lighting Rules in the Village, and What Wildfire Hardening Really Adds
Mountain Village's new outdoor lighting rules can turn a $500,000 remodel into a whole-property fixture job, a CU Boulder study puts a price on wildfire hardening (decks are the swing), three new addresses join Telluride's November 18 HARC docket, the Town Park concert does not advance, and West Colorado loses a block of parking.
In Mountain Village, a remodel worth $500,000 or more, or one that replaces a quarter of the exterior fixtures, now has to bring every outside light on the property up to code. A CU Boulder study says the state wildfire code adds 0.6 to 10.8 percent to a new home, mostly in the deck. Telluride posted three new addresses for the November 18 HARC docket. Town Council did not advance the Town Park concert, and West Colorado Avenue lost a block of parking.
Remodeling in Mountain Village? Count Your Light Fixtures First
The Town of Mountain Village posted on October 22 that the outdoor lighting rules Town Council adopted on July 16 are in effect. Most of it is holiday rules: seasonal lighting November 1 through January 31, lights off 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., no uplighting or floodlights, year-round.
The part that matters if you are planning work: “A redevelopment or remodel valued at $500,000 or more must bring all existing exterior lighting into compliance.” Roof replacements are exempt. Whatever the project is worth, replacing 25 percent or more of a property’s exterior lights triggers the same rule.
Everything else has a date: January 1, 2031 for lighting the building code does not require, January 1, 2036 for lighting it does. The regulations page adds that “new construction and some remodels require a certified lighting design professional” and that permits “may require detailed lighting plans.”
A $500,000 remodel is not large at Village prices, as our budget builder shows; near that line, the fixture count belongs in the estimate, not the punch list.
What Wildfire Hardening Adds to a Build
On October 20, CIRES at CU Boulder published a report on the Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code: it “typically increases the cost of a new home by only 0.6 to 10.8 percent,” and “deck requirements drove most of the cost difference between lower and higher levels of wildfire protection.” San Miguel was not among the eight counties studied, so treat the range as a neighbor’s number.
The rules are already local. Mountain Village’s Ordinance 2026-04 took effect July 1; the staff memo behind it rates every parcel in town moderate or high fire intensity, so new structures meet Class 2 hardening, which “essentially outlaws untreated wood products as exterior building materials.” Replacing 25 percent of a roof or exterior wall, or adding 500 square feet of footprint, is held to the same standard.
To see what a hardened deck looks like finished, our projects have a few.
Telluride: Three New Names on the November 18 Docket
The Historic and Architectural Review Commission (HARC) posted three notices on October 28, all for Wednesday, November 18, at 5:30 p.m.: 421 E. Columbia, a rehab and small-scale addition to a rated structure; 432 W. Colorado, a minor-scale addition and alteration; and 115 W. Colorado, an extension of a certificate of appropriateness.
The notices print the review thresholds. An addition of more than 25 percent of floor area, landing between 1,000 and 2,500 square feet, is “Small Scale” and goes to the full commission. Between 10 and 25 percent, under 2,500 square feet, is “Minor Scale”; the town lists this week’s two under “HARC Chair.”
Also on November 18: both Shandoka applications at 860 Black Bear Road, 50 to 60 housing units and a 900-vehicle garage per the Daily Planet, and 238 N. Pine, Lots 18A and 18B, on their fifth date since February. Planning & Zoning (P&Z) heard the Shandoka preliminary PUD (planned unit development) on October 22; no minutes yet, so no outcome.
Briefly: The Concert, the Striping and the Village
Last week’s open item is closed. KOTO reported that the August 27 and 28, 2027 Town Park proposal came from Planet Bluegrass, at 9,000 a day with a possible AEG partnership, and that “a majority of Town Council members could not see a way for the two events to take place on the same weekend and directed that the proposal not advance through the approval process.”
A Town of Telluride release on October 28: parking on the north side of West Colorado Avenue between Cornet and Davis is permanently removed, the space going to snow storage in winter, and westbound center turn lanes go in at Davis, Tomboy and the Canyonlands entrance. Our reading, not the Town’s: no truck staging on that curb any more.
The Mountain Village Design Review Board (DRB) meets Thursday, November 5, at 10 a.m., with a new single-family home at Lot 98, TBD Mountain Village Blvd. asking for a height variance and vested rights.
What This Means on a Job Site
- Fixture counts are scope. In Mountain Village, a $500,000 remodel or a quarter of the exterior lights means a lighting plan, possibly a certified designer, and every light on the property on the list.
- Decks are the wildfire line item. Price the walking surface, not just the rail.
- The freeze is here. OpenSnow has Telluride lows of 28 by Tuesday night. Footings not in and protected this week are a spring conversation.
- Dates. DRB November 5, HARC November 18, gondola back November 20, resort targeted opening November 26.
If any of this touches a lot or a house of yours, the office number is on every page of this site, and Ricky and Nick will walk it with you before the snow does.