Sara Jo Light

For Centennial Water & Sanitation District Board

PASSION – RESULTS - LEADERSHIP

“Protect CO’s Great Outdoors – Save Our Water”

Our rivers are drying up, our forests are burning, & our wildlife is disappearing. Action on our water crisis is needed now. I want to be part of the solution for Highlands Ranch!

Passion:

• Protecting CO’s great outdoors has been my passion for many decades

• Colorado’s water crisis is only getting worse & our great outdoors are suffering

• I feel strongly that our children & grandchildren deserve access to clean water & the great outdoors as our legacy

Results - I get things done throughout Colorado:

• Reduced Highlands Ranch Wind Crest Community water usage (saved 15 million gallons & $57,000 in water fees annually); this is the annual water usage of 150 Highlands Ranch homes

• Championed the passage of numerous bills in the CO legislature to protect our water & preserve our state parks

Leadership:

• 30 years as a senior business executive in four industries, world-wide

• Elected as Board Chair of two large nonprofit organizations

• Created & led a 300 member legislative team to protect our great outdoors

Vote for Sara Jo Light for the Centennial Water & Sanitation Board

SaraJo4Water.com

To vote in this special nonpartisan election, apply now for a mail-In ballot at Bit.ly/GetBallot4Water

Paid for by SaraJo4Water rently has more than 108,000 units already approved for construction, which would provide homes for nearly 280,000 people.

“ at’s planned housing for all those people,” she said. “ e problem is all those homes will not be built by next year. Development will happen not overnight. is legislation just can’t make them get built faster.”

Arapahoe County is expected to reach 800,000 residents by the year 2030. e current population is just over 650,000.

Cherry Hills Village Mayor Katy Brown agreed with Piko and Warren-Gully, saying a lot of collaborative planning that has gone into meeting Arapahoe County needs at local levels would be undone with the bill passage.

“You’ve just heard a lot about the great work that’s being done to address housing needs locally in Arapahoe County,” she said. “You’ve heard about the smart and collaborative planning and development that takes into consideration the unique communities in our county. But this bill would put an end to all of that by taking decision-making out of the hands of local communities and giving it to the state.”

Under Polis’ land use bill, cities and towns would be barred from limiting the construction of multiplexes and add-on housing units.

Opponents say that is not so simple.

In Colorado, Warren-Gully said, it may sound good to create these plans to force more housing, but the cost is not necessarily going to compute. To give an example, WarrenGully said when a home valued at $450,000 is instead developed into a triplex where the units are sold for $750,000 each — a ordability is still an issue.

“Density does not address affordability,” she said. “We have to be much more intentional to make things a ordable.”

Brown said zoning is currently created by local governments with extensive input from the community.

“By allowing increased density on any single-family lot as a use-byright, this bill takes away a community’s ability to situate housing where it makes sense,” Brown said. “Where it can be sustainable for things like water and sewer. Questions like — Are the pipes underground big enough to handle the increased volume of water and well, frankly, poop that has to go down them? Are the roads and tra c, are the roads wide enough to accommodate the travel, parking and emergency vehicle access? My community still has some narrow dirt roads. It wouldn’t make sense to build an apartment building there, but we might be required to do so under this new legislation.”

Piko said she supports the idea of building more townhomes and condominiums in the metro area, however, past legislative decisions and liability for developers have created a hesitancy to build them over the years.

Schlachter said SB23-213 could also create extra layers of bureaucracy and regulations and that passage of this legislation would mean restricting development of new housing instead of encouraging it.

During a recent town hall, Sheridan Mayor Tara Beiter-Fluhr said with current projects and future plans, the city is working to increase a ordable housing without mandates from the state. SB21-213 does not actually guarantee a ordable housing while municipalities like Sheridan are working to provide “truly a ordable housing,” she said.

With housing being a statewide concern, Schlachter said SB12-213 does not cover it. Schlachter said solutions that work for Denver may not make sense for Littleton, just as Littleton solutions may not work for neighboring communities.

“I wish the a ected municipalities had been brought to the table sooner to help craft legislation that would better address the issues regarding housing a ordability,” he said.

SB23-213, which was o cially introduced on March 22, will be discussed in committee on April 6. Nina Joss contributed to this story.