Colorado legislature: Two land-use reform bills near final vote after late-night approval
The Colorado legislature is returning Sunday in the course of the closing weekend of labor in its 2024 session, set to finish Wednesday. Amongst main items of laws nonetheless pending are gun laws, housing, land-use coverage, transportation, property tax reform and different priorities.
This story will probably be up to date all through the day.
Up to date at 11:14 a.m.: In a pair of late-night votes Saturday, the Colorado Senate superior two land-use reform payments, inching them just some steps away from Gov. Jared Polis’ desk.
Home Invoice 1313 — which might require Entrance Vary native governments to set density targets close to transit-rich areas and set methods to hit these targets — handed on a standing vote. Home Invoice 1152, which might enable accessory-dwelling items to be in-built Entrance Vary cities, cleared on a voice vote. Each now want a closing vote within the Senate (which isn’t assembly Sunday after its late night time) earlier than sponsors meet to reconcile adjustments made for the reason that two payments handed the Home.
A 3rd land-use invoice, to restrict parking minimums alongside the Entrance Vary, absolutely handed the Senate on Saturday, too. Rep. Stephanie Vigil, a Colorado Springs Democrat and one of many invoice’s sponsors, stated she deliberate to just accept the Senate’s moderating adjustments and ship the invoice to Polis.
The flurry of weekend exercise places the land-use package deal, a which might mark first-in-decades reforms, getting ready to full passage, a yr after a primary try collapsed underneath its personal weight like a dying star.
The second try hasn’t been simple, and not one of the payments has superior unscathed. Home Invoice 1313 has been amended repeatedly, sparking frustration from one Democratic senator Saturday night time. The parking measure, which supporters feared was on life assist just some days in the past, was pared again from a broad ban to solely developments close to transit stops; native governments additionally would now have a case-by-case choice to nonetheless require some parking. The ADU invoice additionally features a gentle parking requirement after a late modification within the Senate.
The repeated adjustments appeared to immediate Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat who’d given key however skeptical backing to the density invoice, to desert her assist totally. Gonzalez has stated she’s notably involved concerning the invoice as a result of it’s prone to affect her neighborhood — city elements of Denver prone to gentrification — greater than others.
She reiterated these issues late Saturday, in addition to frustrations with extra late adjustments to the invoice; sponsors introduced a number of amendments Saturday, which have been considerably technical but additionally gave native governments extra flexibility in exempting sure areas from the density targets.
Gonzales referred to as for a no vote on the invoice at one level. Later, throughout a procedural vote, she additionally superior an modification that might’ve primarily gutted the ADU measure.
Nonetheless, even with the amendments, the payments would nonetheless mark a shift in how the state — and native governments — method land-use and improvement throughout the Entrance Vary as policymakers attain for an answer to the state’s housing disaster. The ADU and density payments may face their closing votes within the Senate on Monday, giving sponsors two days to reconcile adjustments and ship them to Polis.
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