Aurora City Council gave unanimous approval on first reading Monday night to a bill that restricts the use of nonfunctional grass in new development throughout the city.

Should the bill pass on its second vote, Aurora would become the first municipality in Colorado to restrict the use of “cool weather turf” in new development, redevelopment and for the creation of new golf courses. As defined in the ordinance, cool weather turf includes Kentucky bluegrass and fescue.

A fact sheet for the ordinance says that Aurora gets less than 15 inches of precipitation every year. But cool weather turf requires as much as 28 inches of precipitation or irrigation in order to survive, and outdoor use accounts for half of the water used in Aurora every year.

Water used for irrigation either evaporates or is used by plants, and cannot be recycled. Recycled water is a cornerstone of Aurora’s Prairie Waters system, which has been fully functional since 2018.

Aurora City Council considers Colorado's first-ever cool weather turf ban for new development

The ordinance would primarily allow turf only in active or programmed recreation, such as sports fields, or other areas serving non-organized sports events, such as parks. Cool weather turf would be prohibited in medians, curbside landscape, residential front yards and limited in backyards to 500 square feet or 45% of the backyard, whichever is less. It also prohibits use of cool weather turf for new golf courses and bans ornamental water features, such as waterfalls, basins, ponds and exterior decorative fountains.

Marshall Brown, Aurora Water’s general manager, said at the council meeting that the Colorado River — which is where a quarter of Aurora’s water supply comes from — is about 2-4 million acre feet short in any given year out of 14 million acre feet. He said rest of the city’s water comes from the South Platte River and the Arkansas River, both of which are also feeling the effects of drought.

Brown said this bill is Aurora’s attempt to set the city up as a vibrant city “that doesn’t get affected as much by these stressors.” He said currently, about half of Aurora’s water use is outdoors while the other half is indoors, and this is a way for Aurora to be a leader in this area.

“We took on a challenge to create an ordinance that would make a significant difference in our sustainable future,” Brown said.

Council adopted two amendments to the ordinance, both proposed by council member Curtis Gardner.

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The first will require that three years after the bill’s adoption, a third-party economic study be conducted to analyze the impact of the ordinance on water use, household water rates, home values and prices, and new home construction in Aurora, as well as reporting on any adoption of similar ordinances by other municipalities in the Denver metro area.

The second amendment changed language in the bill so that developers no longer need to have an approved site plan by Jan. 1, 2023 to avoid being subject to the new rules. Now, as long as developers have a complete site plan application submitted before Sept. 30, their project will be exempt from the ordinance.

City staff said this would take the pressure off of staff to rush through the approval process, which typically takes from 12 to 16 weeks.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman is the primary sponsor of the bill, as he said it’s essential given the current drought and climate crisis.

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“This ordinance recognizes the need for water conservation on all new developments given Aurora’s capacity for both commercial and residential growth,” Coffman said Monday night. “This proposal recognizes that the easy water rights in Colorado are all gone and that the acquisition of new water rights will become increasingly expensive.”

Coffman previously told Colorado Politics he believes the ordinance could help the city reduce its outside irrigation usage by half.

Colorado Politics reporter Marianne Goodland contributed to this report.