{"id":132807,"date":"2026-06-11T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-builds-in-cortez-required-to-be-ready-for-solar-energy-and-electric-vehicles\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T02:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T08:00:13","slug":"new-builds-in-cortez-required-to-be-ready-for-solar-energy-and-electric-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-builds-in-cortez-required-to-be-ready-for-solar-energy-and-electric-vehicles\/","title":{"rendered":"New builds in Cortez required to be ready for solar energy and electric vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Under
Under state mandate, Cortez City Council implemented the Colorado Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code, which will apply to new residential and commercial construction projects in the city. (AP file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

New commercial and residential building projects in Cortez will be required to accommodate solar energy, high efficiency electric appliances and electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

Cortez City Council approved the requirements Tuesday in an ordinance updating building codes \u2013 a measure that sparked debate as council members worried about additional costs for housing developments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re speaking with two tongues here,\u201d Council Member April Randle said. \u201cWe want affordable housing and the state is mandating that we have affordable housing, and we\u2019re pushing this down at the same time that our housing costs are going up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The implementation of all updated codes, which will affect only the construction of new buildings, eventually passed with five \u201cyes\u201d votes and \u201cno\u201d votes from Randle and Council Member Clarisa Osborn.<\/p>\n

Disagreement stemmed from the Colorado Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code, which the state mandates the city adopt by June 30. It requires property owners to ensure new buildings can accommodate electrical conduits and solar panels. The codes are meant to ensure property owners can transition to solar energy and electric appliances and vehicles, if they choose, in line with Colorado\u2019s goal to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2040.<\/p>\n

City Planner Jason Armstrong and Building Inspector Sean Canada spoke in favor of the solar and electric code.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be some additional space in your breaker box, additional conduit run up into the attic. That\u2019s it,\u201d Canada said, adding that most roofs already have the capacity to support solar panels.<\/p>\n

Under the council-approved codes, city staff will create a waiver process, allowing new builds to bypass the Colorado Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code if the cost of compliance exceeds 1% of the total mechanical, electrical and plumbing construction costs. Canada said that only in rare instances would incorporating the new required infrastructure represent a significant cost burden.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re going back and retrofitting a home is when that turns a little more costly,\u201d City Manager Drew Sanders said. \u201cHaving done this in my personal home, I\u2019m telling you, it really wasn\u2019t that much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montezuma County Commissioner Kent Lindsay, vice president of Empire Electric, expressed concerns about the ability of Cortez\u2019s electrical grid to withstand a dramatic increase in solar energy generation. While he didn\u2019t provide the specific limits of the city\u2019s electric grid, he said that rates for customers would need to be raised if the capacity were stretched.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have one substation in our system that\u2019s at capacity now. Those substations are $5 million a piece. So, divide that by your rate payers,\u201d Lindsay said. \u201cRight now we can accept quite a bit, but down the road it\u2019s going to get to a point where we can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada clarified the codes don\u2019t require current or future property owners to incorporate solar energy or electric appliances into their homes or businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of these homes or businesses are mandated to hook up to the electric grid immediately. You can still have gas. You can have everything else,\u201d Canada said.<\/p>\n

avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City Council approve fire safety, ventilation updates and City Council new building codes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[459,1429,1098,28,929,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-132807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-construction-and-property","tag-cortez-city-council","tag-energy","tag-headlines","tag-house-building","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135283,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132807\/revisions\/135283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132807"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=132807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}