Gov. Polis, Dems on verge of “a real step forward” on housing as land-use bills sail toward finish
The Colorado legislature is poised to go a collection of marquee land-use reform measures that promise to reshape housing growth alongside the Entrance Vary, delivering a major win to Gov. Jared Polis and legislative Democrats a yr after their first reform try collapsed.
On Tuesday, the penultimate day of the legislative session, the Senate handed Home Invoice 1313. It requires Entrance Vary native governments to set density targets close to transit-rich areas after which exhibit they’re hitting these targets. The invoice is the centerpiece of the five-part land-use bundle, and — after successful a swift procedural vote within the Home later within the day — it’s now headed to Polis for full passage into regulation.
“It is a super victory for reasonably priced housing in Colorado,” mentioned Rep. Steven Woodrow, a Denver Democrat who was amongst a number of sponsors of the invoice. “We’ve recognized for a while that we’d like denser zoning by transit, and this invoice delivers.”
Late Monday night time, 12 hours earlier than the transit density invoice handed, the Senate additionally gave remaining approval to Home Invoice 1152, which typically permits for accessory-dwelling items like storage flats and granny flats to be constructed on single-family properties in Entrance Vary cities. That measure awaited a procedural vote earlier than transferring to the governor’s desk.
Polis has already signed Home Invoice 1007, which bans native residential occupancy limits that aren’t security associated. He’s additionally anticipated to signal Home Invoice 1304, which limits how a lot parking native governments can require for developments close to sure public transit corridors and routes.
The ultimate piece of the land-use bundle is a invoice requiring native governments to undertake common housing research. It’s nonetheless transferring by way of the Home, although that measure, too, was anticipated to clear the legislature earlier than the session ends Wednesday night time.
This yr’s laws nonetheless confronted a wringer because the payments moved by way of the Home and Senate. However whereas vocal opponents didn’t again down, they weren’t in a position to hold the payments from passing.
Kevin Bommer, the manager director of the Colorado Municipal League — which has broadly opposed a lot of the reforms — mentioned in an announcement Tuesday that he was grateful the density invoice was pared again. Nevertheless it “stays to be seen,” he mentioned, “how this system will truly work and the way municipalities select to reply” to the payments.
Polis, zoning reform advocates and environmental teams have backed state-level land use intervention as a broad-spectrum antibiotic for a number of the state’s current and future ills: Extra housing inventory, they argue, will carry down rents and costs. Pairing density with transit ideally will minimize down on automobile use and air air pollution.
And denser growth, they argue, will maximize water and utility utilization in a state that’s anticipated to proceed rising.
“The truth is,” Polis mentioned in an announcement, “that constructing extra housing close to transit, giving householders the liberty to construct an ADU on their property, eliminating pricey parking necessities above and past what individuals need, and making certain that each neighborhood is planning for the longer term and dealing collectively will cut back housing prices so extra Coloradans can afford to reside the place they need.”
The bundle’s impending passage comes nearly precisely a yr after a broader first try to reform the state’s native land-use insurance policies fell aside on the ultimate day of the 2023 session.
That was a serious blow for Polis. He’d eschewed extra progressive interventions for the housing disaster in favor of a supply-side method that was centered on circumventing native zoning guidelines to kickstart denser, quicker growth.
After the primary try collapsed, lawmakers and the coalition of reasonably priced housing and environmental teams broke the insurance policies into separate payments this yr. They did so to extend the possibilities that at the least some would survive and in order that they may debate every measure independently.
Additionally they have been extra clear with the payments’ contents for months earlier than the session started. They usually scaled again the bundle’s breadth and paired it with transit reforms and funding.
To make sure help from reasonably priced housing teams and progressive lawmakers, the transit-centric density invoice additionally requires native governments to pick out affordability and anti-displacement methods — resembling incentivizing backed housing items or bigger house items — to make sure current communities aren’t displaced when their city corridors abruptly change into profitable targets for growth.
Native governments, legislative Republicans and a corps of reasonable Democrats opposed the bundle as infringing on land-use choices that lengthy have been managed by metropolis councils, county commissions and planning boards.
That opposition scuttled final yr’s effort, and the bundle’s passage this yr was not assured.
Legislative debates resulted in concessions: Essentially the most sweeping of the provisions apply solely to the Entrance Vary. The parking measure was scaled again. To make sure the density invoice’s passage within the Senate, hundreds of thousands in tax credit have been pulled and moved elsewhere.
That invoice was additionally stripped of its sharpest tooth: a provision that may have withheld tax cash from native governments that resisted implementing the invoice, plus language saying {that a} state company may sue those self same intransigent municipalities.
However even with out these provisions, the state nonetheless may pursue authorized motion towards native governments that refuse to conform within the coming years.
As a result of the land-use bundle typically seeks to bolster growth, its full results will seemingly take years to set in. Nonetheless, supporters hailed its passage, notably after final yr’s failures.
“It’s a step ahead. It’s not excellent, however little or no that comes out of this constructing is,” mentioned Kinsey Hasstedt, the director of state and native coverage for Enterprise Neighborhood Companions. “It’s an actual step ahead with significant affordability and displacement mitigation for Colorado.”
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