Requirements dramatically pared back in governor’s “land-use” bill

BY JESSE PAUL AND ELLIOTT WENZLER THE COLORADO SUN

A long line of cars outside the city of Brighton’s rapid testing site at Riverdale Regional Park. The site has had to close early many days in recent weeks due to high demand. Adams County’s 14-day test positivity rate was 15.9 percent, as of Nov. 17, according to Tri-County Health Department. Brighton and Commerce City’s test positivity rates were both higher than 13 percent. Forty- ve people in Brighton and 29 in Commerce City have died from COVID-19 related health issues. To limit the spread of COVID-19, at least 15 counties moved to tighter restrictions that prohibits indoor and personal gatherings.

Gov. Jared Polis and Democrats in the Colorado legislature signi cantly pared back their major land-use bill amid big questions about whether their signature a ordable housing initiative at the Capitol this year can get enough support to pass.

Colorado’s largest cities would no longer be required to let multifamily housing with up to six units be built in all residentially zoned areas under a major amendment made to e change, which came in midApril, shifts the legislation away from attempting to broadly increase housing density to a more limited approach linked to transit. Without the changes, it appeared the bill, which has received major opposition from cities and towns across the state, would lack enough support to clear its rst committee. under Colorado’s system of coronavirusrelated restrictions, the state announced a new level of rules that prohibits indoor dining and personal gatherings — a change that applies to the majority of the Denver metro area and many counties in other regions. e state’s COVID-19 dial, which has been in e ect since September, is the set of di erent levels of restrictions that each e Senate Local Government and Housing Committee approved the overhauled measure on a 4-3 county is required to follow based on the severity of a county’s local virus spread. vote, with all of the Democrats on the panel voting “yes” and all of the Republicans voting “no.” It was unclear whether the measure would have enough votes to advance and the committee hearing was delayed for hours while amendments were nalized and negotiated. home order — the policy that came a er spring and allowed numerous types of businesses to reopen. e state recently switched to color identi ers — levels blue, yellow and orange rather than numbered levels — to avoid confusion. Until Nov. 17, level red meant a stay-at-home order. Now, level red — “severe risk” — is the second-

Senate Bill 213. Instead, those cities — like Denver, Aurora, Boulder, Englewood, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Lakewood, Pueblo, ornton and Westminster — would only have to let duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes be built in 30% of their land area currently zoned for singlefamily homes, concentrated around train and high-frequency bus corridors where applicable.

In all, there were 17 amendments made to the bill, totaling dozens of pages. One of the major changes reduces land-use requirements on resort communities, like Aspen and Vail.

Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno, a Commerce City Democrat and prime sponsor of the bill, warned that more changes were needed. “By no means does the

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