In what many Marshall Fire victims are hoping will become a movement to embrace safety over aesthetics, the Rock Creek Homeowners Association modernized the rules. It voted unanimously Thursday to allow its 65 Marshall Fire victims, and anyone else who lives in the community, to rebuild using metal fire-proof fencing.

RCHOA is believed to be the first Marshall Fire-represented HOA to allow fire-proof fencing as the threat of wildfires become the norm in mountain desert climates like Colorado. Other similar organizations, often not known for budging, appear to be poised to follow.

The decision was 15 months in the making and considered by Superior town leaders to be a courageous move.

“I’m really glad that they came around to getting this done,” Superior Town Trustee Jenn Kaaoush said.

She was not present on Thursday’s evening Zoom call to hear discussion that came with the 7-0 vote, but she said residents contacted her with the news and Kaaoush confirmed the vote for The Denver Gazette.

Calls and emails to the Rock Creek Homeowners Association were not returned Friday, but the Denver Gazette wrote a story after the RCHOA board did a straw poll in a pivotal meeting earlier this month. At that time, the informal vote was 5-2 in favor of allowing fire-proof metal fencing.

Thursday night’s vote was unanimous.

At times the discussion over fencing material has been tense, according to Rock Creek Marshall Fire victims. Some residents and RCHOA board members were concerned that installing fencing made of anything other than wood would be inharmonious to the 2,800-home community.

Marshall Fire survivors were anxious about the vote. Everywhere along the fire’s destructive path, rebuilding is underway. Frames, roofing and landscaping are complete, but in many instances, fencing has been put on hold.

Just before lunch on Dec. 30, 2021, hurricane force wind gusts ignited dry grasses which then carried the flames to wooden fences which surround every home in Superior’s Rock Creek subdivision. Cedar fences were a requirement the Rock Creek Home Owner’s Association mandated 25 years ago. Today, all of them stand six feet tall, painted in a color called cabot dune grey.

Those pretty cedar and split rail fences, miles of which had been left untreated and dried out, became match sticks for anything in their path, including dozens of Rock Creek homes.

“Fences acted like fuses. They moved the fire along fence lines and brought the fire to the houses,” said Mountain View Fire Marshall Jeff Webb. “We tried to create fire breaks by kicking down fences and breaking the continuous path.”

Some families whose houses border open space consider themselves sitting ducks for the next possible catastrophic fire.

“I am very pleased and proud of the Rock Creek HOA for making what was a hard decision and showing some real leadership on this issue,” said Thomas O’Connor, who was on the RCHOA fencing committee. “We’re hopeful too that it will set an example for other HOA’s in Colorado.”

There are dozens of Colorado homeowners’ associations watching how Marshall Fire-affected HOA’s like Rock Creek, will handle allowing non-combustible material going forward.

One of those is a smaller, vulnerable community in Colorado Springs called Struthers Ranch.

Eric Niksch, a member of the Struthers Ranch Home Owners Association, said that the fatal June 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire which destroyed 346 homes and the Black Forest Fire which hit a heavily populated woodland area north east of the city almost exactly a year later, burned too close for comfort.

“The Black Forest fire was endangering homes to the east of us and we were afraid that the Waldo Canyon fire was going to jump the interstate,” Niksch said.

Struthers Ranch sits in the foothills of Colorado Springs just north of the Air Force Academy.

Niksch added that he wants for Struthers’ 173 homeowners to have the option to install metal fencing if and when they want.

Recently, high winds have blown down wooden fence and he is looking into the same companies that Rock Creek fencing committee did as an option to  replace it.

“This wouldn’t be a mandate. Nobody’s going to be happy about everything,” he said.

Superior’s Sagamore community is not regulated by an HOA, and instead gets its marching orders from the town’s Planned Unit Development. Every single home in Sagamore was leveled by the Marshall Fire.

“As a town board, we can change the PUD. I believe that is the plan,” said Kauoush.

Louisville’s Coal Creek Ranch Homeowners Association may follow next month.

Rock Creek’s O’Connor said the late nights of research, virtual meetings and hair pulling was worth the peace of mind that metal fencing will give him and his family once they move into their rebuilt home.

“There is some compelling data out there. It does take a while to learn about this topic,” said O’Connor. “I just am really impressed that as people understand this issue more they will recognize the risks.”