The Colorado legislature is poised to pass a suite of marquee land-use reform measures that promise to reshape housing development along the Front Range, delivering a significant win to Gov. Jared Polis and legislative Democrats a year after their first reform attempt collapsed. On Tuesday, the penultimate day of the legislative session, the Senate passed … Read more
For the second year in a row, the sounds of Cinco de Mayo echoed into the Capitol as lawmakers toiled on a Saturday to find common ground on proposed reforms to state land use and property tax policy. The 120-day legislative session ends Wednesday, and lawmakers are still wrestling with some of the marquee proposals … Read more
There are now just 10 days left in the 2024 Colorado legislative session. With a number of hefty bills still in the legislative pipeline, that means 10 days of long nights, voting marathons and hectic scrambling lie ahead of us. Or, to paraphrase how one senator put it to The Denver Post last week: Go … Read more
Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law Monday that officially eliminates most restrictions on how many unrelated roommates can live together in Colorado. House Bill 1007 prohibits local governments from enacting occupancy limits, which Polis and other critics of the policy have derided as discriminatory and outdated. Roughly two dozen Colorado cities have such … Read more
Transgender and nonbinary people would be better protected from harassment in Colorado under new bill Transgender and nonbinary people would receive more explicit protections in Colorado’s anti-bias and harassment law if a newly introduced bill becomes law. Advocates characterize the bill as a simple legislative fix to ensure gender identity and expression are protected across … Read more
Colorado lawmakers are poised to ban occupancy limits in cities and towns across the state, clearing the way for more roommates to live together as part of Democrats’ push to reform local zoning regulations and address the state’s housing crisis. Roughly two dozen cities and towns in Colorado have the type of occupancy limits that … Read more
Colorado cities are ready for a legal fight if necessary to stop a state push to overhaul local housing density rules and allow more tightly packed development along train and bus routes. While many local governments support the goal of concentrating people in apartments around transit hubs so they drive less, mayors have objected to … Read more
Jodi Lovejoy can look out the window of her Westminster apartment and see the mountains of the Front Range. She can track the rolling clouds and watch the weather change over the peaks, something she used to do with her children. The neighborhood is quiet, dotted by mature trees. She doesn’t own the two bedrooms … Read more
For years, minimum parking requirements in urban areas have served as a white whale for some in Colorado’s coalition of housing advocates and land-use reformers. They’ve looked at those vast seas of concrete and asphalt with a combination of distaste and a desire for what those spaces otherwise could be used for. Instead of more … Read more
As Sean Jursnick traveled through Europe, he marveled at its buildings. The Denver-based architect was particularly struck by a type of development that’s largely illegal in the United States: taller apartment buildings with just a single staircase. Such buildings often feature apartments or condos situated around a central flight of stairs, with front doors opening directly … Read more
