Commissioners o cially oppose state land use bill

SB23-213 being discussed

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Douglas County’s elected leaders have come out against the proposal from Gov. Jared Polis and Democratic state lawmakers aimed at addressing the state’s housing a ordability crisis by increasing residential density.

e bill in the state legislature emerged as one of the most talkedabout issues in local politics this year. It would particularly a ect highly populated areas, including many cities and towns in the Denver metro area. In Douglas County, the a ected municipalities would include Castle Pines, Castle Rock, Lone Tree and Parker.

Initially, the bill would have prohibited large cities and towns from restricting the building of duplexes, triplexes and multiplexes up to six units.

But in mid-April, Democrats at the state Capitol rolled back some parts of the proposal.

Under the amended bill, cities and towns would have to allow duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes to be built in a half-mile radius around transit rail stations and a quarter-mile around corridors with bus rapid transit or where a bus stops every 15 minutes, e Colorado Sun reported.

(If a municipality doesn’t want to allow building of two, three or four units next to certain transit stops, it could opt to zone for that kind of housing in a di erent part of the city or town proportional to the area around a transit stop that would have been a ected.)

Douglas County commissioners had voted unanimously to support amending the proposal, called state Senate Bill 23-213, according to Commissioner Lora omas’ newsletter. e commissioners don’t have direct input on what laws get passed at the Capitol, but they take positions on proposed state laws to give direction to the county’s lobbyists, who work to support the commissioners’ stance. e commissioners also take positions on bills to provide input to Colorado Counties Inc., a nonpro t that works to present a “united voice” of local governments to the state legislature to help shape policy, according to its website. omas took issue with Commissioner George Teal over his vote to oppose SB 213 at Colorado Counties Inc. even though the commissioners had voted unanimously to take an “amend” position initially. e commissioners did not issue a statement of why they support or oppose a bill when a formal position is issued, according to county sta .

It’s historically been the practice of the Douglas County commissioners to be allowed to “read the room” at CCI and vote accordingly. But it is rare for the commissioners to take an o cial position in one direction and then have a di erent position representing Douglas County at CCI. Ultimately, commissioners later took another o cial stance, voting unanimously April 18 to oppose the bill.