Pine View v. BOCC

── Pine View v. BOCC ── Court: Colorado Court of Appeals Date: May 14, 2026 Category: General 25CA0079 Pine View v BOCC 05-14-2026 COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS Court of Appeals No. 25CA0079 Boulder County District Court No. 24CV30372 Honorable Judith L. LaBuda, Judge Pine View, LLC, a Colorado limited liability company, and CM3 Living Trust, a Minnesota Trust, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Board of County Commissioners of the County of Boulder, Colorado, Defendant-Appellee. JUDGMENT AFFIRMED Division IV Opinion by JUDGE BROWN Freyre and Schutz, JJ., concur NOT PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO C.A.R. 35(e) Announced May 14, 2026 Dietze and Davis, P.C., Karl F. Kumli, Robyn W. Kube, S. Daniel Rubin, Boulder, Colorado, for Plaintiffs-Appellants Ben Pearlman, County Attorney, David Hughes, Deputy County Attorney, Erica Rodgers, Assistant County Attorney, Boulder, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellee ¶1 Plaintiffs, Pine View, LLC and CM3 Living Trust (collectively, owners), appeal the district court’s judgment dismissing their request to review a zoning map amendment made by defendant, the Board of County Commissioners of the County of Boulder (the BOCC). We affirm. I. Background ¶2 Owners seek to challenge an amendment the BOCC made to the Boulder County Floodplain Overlay District. The Floodplain Overlay District provides land use controls necessary to qualify unincorporated areas of Boulder County for federal flood insurance. The Floodplain Overlay District consists of floodplain zones established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) combined with floodplain zones established by the county. ¶3 Owners own and maintain adjoining parcels of agricultural real property located in unincorporated Boulder County. Owners rely on the Dry Creek Carrier Ditch (the Ditch) to divert water from Baseline Reservoir and South Boulder Creek to irrigate their respective properties. Owners alleged they are entitled to the diverted irrigation water pursuant to Colorado water court decrees and their shares in the Base Line Land and Reservoir Company. 1 ¶4 Following severe flooding in 2013, the Colorado General Assembly created and funded the Colorado Hazard Mapping Program (CHAMP), managed by the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB), to update local flood-hazard information and produce new regulatory floodplain maps for the most affected waterways in unincorporated Boulder County. The Ditch was identified in the CHAMP study as an affected floodway. In 2017 and 2018, the county incorporated preliminary CHAMP data into amendments to the Floodplain Overlay District. ¶5 In 2019, based on the CHAMP remapping efforts, FEMA released preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs). Because the preliminary FIRMs contained minor adjustments from the previously adopted CHAMP maps, the county amended the Floodplain Overlay District to account for the changes. ¶6 In July 2023, FEMA released revised preliminary FIRMs that were expected to become effective in 2024. In response, the county determined it needed to amend the Floodplain Overlay District again to reflect the changes made by FEMA. Specifically, the county sought to remove the county floodplain maps included in the CHAMP study and align the Floodplain Overlay District with the 2  FEMA FIRMs, such that the FIRMs would be the sole regulatory floodplain maps for CHAMP-affected areas. Doing so would prevent the BOCC from having to amend the county floodplain zones each time FEMA altered the FIRMs; FEMA’s changes would be automatically incorporated into the Floodplain Overlay District. ¶7 In November 2023, owners received a postcard notifying them of a virtual information session to be held the following month concerning the proposed amendmen