Boulder’s prescriptive requirements, and the two filings nobody expects.
Boulder asks for audits, lighting upgrades and retrocommissioning rather than a numeric target, and because there is no deemed compliance a covered building files with both the city and the state.
Dates and thresholds change. We confirm the current requirement for your specific building before anyone acts on it.
What the standard actually asks of a building.
Boulder is prescriptive rather than performance based. Instead of asking whether the building hits a number, it asks whether specific work has been done on schedule: energy audits, lighting requirements and retrocommissioning. That makes compliance a project management exercise more than an analytical one.
The scoping surprise is that there is no deemed compliance. A covered commercial building in Boulder has a city obligation and a state obligation, and the state fee is payable on top. Two filings, one building.
The coverage line is equally important in the other direction. A Boulder condominium at 50,000 sq ft is outside the city ordinance entirely and owes the state programme alone, which is a materially smaller scope than owners expect.
How we get you to the standard
Establish the position, choose the route, then document the work.
The risk here is scope confusion, in both directions.
Commercial buildings frequently miss the second filing, because the absence of deemed compliance is counterintuitive when neighbouring jurisdictions have it.
Residential buildings frequently over-comply, spending money on a city obligation that does not apply to them. Establishing which side of the line you are on is the first hour of work.
What a Boulder notice usually means.
Boulder letters are usually about the prescriptive schedule.
Send us the letterSend us the letter itself, not a summary. We read it for the six things that decide the response: who sent it, which building and identifier it names, what period it covers, what it says you failed to do, the cure date, and whether it is a first notice or an escalation. We never quote a running penalty total, and we cure first, then talk to the regulator.
Why boards bring us in
Performance standards are where the money is, and where bad advice is most expensive.
Questions about the Boulder Building Performance Ordinance
Keep reading
The pages that usually matter next for a Boulder building.
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