Turf and putting greens in Monte Cielo.

Section 12.1 of the recorded guidelines defines landscaping broadly: trees, shrubs, “turf, planting areas and gardens, patios, decks, retaining wall structures,” gazebos, arbors, water features, ponds and swimming pools, with a stated intent of natural, informal groupings of native or hardy plants. Section 12.2 then requires landscaping to follow “a professionally prepared landscaping plan prepared by a qualified professional with experience in the State of Colorado,” calls a landscape architect highly encouraged, and has the committee approve the final plan before installation. That plan shows the turf, patios, built-in barbecues, pools and water features, a description of the irrigation and the building envelope lines.

The planting minimums in Section 12.9.f are where turf gets specific. Every area not in beds, acceptable ground cover or hard surface “shall be sodded with a Kentucky Bluegrass or a predominately Kentucky Bluegrass mixture or other grasses approved by the Design Review Committee.” The guidelines don’t say whether a synthetic lawn counts as one of those other grasses, as acceptable ground cover, or as neither. It depends on how the committee reads its own section, so ask the Design Review Committee before a product is chosen.

The declaration places Monte Cielo under the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act and limits each home to single-family use, which is why Colorado’s backyard rule for associations, printed on this page, reads alongside Section 12.9.f. The front of a lot is another matter: the guidelines want the ground between the envelope and the street watered enough to stay “green and growing,” and any strip between curb and sidewalk “planted in grass and sprinkled.”

Section 6 of the guidelines sends “any modifications to the Lot or landscaping” made after a home is complete and occupied through Special Review: the application form plus at least three copies of whatever describes the project. “If, in the opinion of the Committee, the proposal could adversely impact adjacent property owners, it will be referred to them for comment.” Neighbors keep a voice after the decision, too. Under Paragraph 7.8 of the declaration the applicant or any Impacted Owner may appeal to the Board within 10 days, and no work starts until those 10 days have run.

Flagstaff Management’s page and the one-page request form both say the committee has 30 days. The declaration is narrower. Paragraph 7.7 starts the 30 days only when the committee signs a written Decision Period Notice, which it need issue only when the applicant asks in writing, and Paragraph 7.9 deems a request approved if no decision or request for more information arrives within 30 days of that notice. Ask for the notice in the letter that goes with the submittal.

Section 4.4 lets a designated Committee Executive handle “minor landscaping projects” without the full committee, yet the same section sends every reconfiguration of the landscape architecture to the committee before work begins; whether a green is minor is the committee’s call. The two documents also disagree on appeals: the guidelines send one back to the committee within 30 calendar days, the declaration to the Board within 10.

Boulder County’s parcel map draws the 22 Monte Cielo lots at about 43,500 to 68,800 square feet each, and the usable part is smaller. Paragraph 8.3 of the declaration allows no improvement outside the building envelope the county approved for each lot, and the declaration counts grading, sod, sprinkler systems, retaining walls and lighting fixtures as improvements. Fences, play equipment and basketball hoops stay inside the envelope as well. Outside it, apart from the front strip facing the street, the ground need not be irrigated but must be mowed and kept free of noxious weeds.

Siting also has to answer to the neighbors’ view. Section 10.3.b asks that landscaping keep views to the mountains, into and out of adjacent lots, where possible, and Section 12.2 warns that large evergreens block views year round while deciduous trees open them in winter. To screen a green, Section 10.8 allows a wood privacy fence of up to six feet, only inside the envelope and at least six feet behind the front facade line; deciduous planting keeps the winter view that spruce would close.

Evening putting runs into Section 10.11: general area floodlights are prohibited, no light may be aimed outside the envelope, and low-voltage ground lights for decorative site lighting are encouraged. An outdoor kitchen next to the green splits in two. A permanently mounted gas barbecue in the backyard envelope needs no committee approval under Section 4.3.h, while the turf around it, an arbor or a pool does.

Paragraph 8.25 is printed in capitals: “THE SOILS ARE POTENTIALLY EXPANSIVE AND THE WATER TABLE IS POTENTIALLY HIGH WITHIN THE PLANNED COMMUNITY,” and owners are told to investigate what that means for anything they build. Colorado has builders give the buyer of a new home a soils report summary at least 14 days before closing; if it isn’t in the closing papers, ask for it. That report is the place to start for a turf or green base, since it bears on how deep to dig and where water reaching the base can go.

Grading is the other limit. Paragraph 11.4 bars any change to the drainage pattern the developer set, across a lot or from one lot to the next, unless the Board approves it in writing with adequate alternate drainage, and any alteration must be “prepared, signed and stamped” by a professional engineer registered in Colorado. Section 12.3 of the guidelines accepts berms only where they read as natural landforms, wants a 10% slope away from the house for at least 10 feet, and asks for contours or finish grades on the landscape plan. A chipping mound and a green’s breaks are grading, so draw them against the master grading and drainage plans, copies of which the guidelines say are available on request.

The association also maintains any irrigation ditch on an outlot or a lot, whoever owns it. Where one crosses a lot, find it on the plat before siting a green.

Every Monte Cielo lot is listed as unincorporated on Boulder County’s parcel map, and the county’s Land Use Code “shall apply to all land within the unincorporated areas of Boulder County.” The TDR/PUD plat the community is built on is a county tool, offered in that code “as a viable alternative to municipal annexation for development purposes.” Neither the recorded guidelines nor the declaration mentions Longmont: the guidelines name the county’s land use and building regulations as the rules they supplement, with the more stringent one applying where they conflict. The city code on the Longmont page governs land inside city limits.

The word turf appears nowhere in the county’s Land Use Code as updated May 13, 2025, or in the amendments adopted as Resolution 2026-011. The county lists retaining walls over 48 inches and fences over six feet high among the additions that need a county building permit. Monte Cielo’s privacy fences top out at six feet, so a retaining wall cut for a sunken green is the likelier trigger.

The documents disagree on where a permit comes from. The association’s Design Review Request form says approval does not relieve an owner of “building permits from the City of Longmont, if required,” while the declaration makes the applicant responsible for every permit the County requires, and Boulder County says it issues building permits for unincorporated areas. It depends on the address, so confirm with Boulder County Community Planning & Permitting and tell the committee which office issued yours.