Colorado Alert: SB 213 Residential Land Use

Alert date: 
6 April 2023
Alert body: 

Colorado Senate Bill 213 - Land Use - Big Government intrusion into local zoning and land use

Colorado Senate Bill 213

Colorado Senate Bill 213 is a bill to eliminate local and HOA control over land use, housing density, occupancy limits, and property values.

Our cities, counties, and homeowner ;associations would lose control over all of the above items.

Update: 28 May 2023: Senate Bill 213 died in the last hours of the session, while waiting for the Senate to approve amendments made by the House. 

From the Colorado General Assembly website:

SB23-213 Land Use

Concerning state land use requirements, and, in connection therewith, establishing a process to diagnose and address housing needs across the state, addressing requirements for the regulation of accessory dwelling units, middle housing, transit-oriented areas, key corridors, and manufactured and modular homes, prohibiting certain planned unit development resolutions, prohibiting a local government from enforcing certain occupancy limits, modifying the content requirements for county and municipal master plans, prohibiting certain municipalities from imposing minimum square footage requirements for residential units, requiring entities to submit a completed and validated water loss audit report to the Colorado water conservation board, prohibiting a unit owners' association from prohibiting certain kinds of housing, requiring the transportation commission and the department of transportation to modify the state highway access code, criteria for certain grant programs, and expenditures from the multimodal transportation options fund to align with state strategic growth objectives, and making an appropriation.

 

The bill stands to impact community associations in a huge way by preventing associations from prohibiting accessory dwelling units, "middle housing" consisting of duplexes and triplexes, and other housing favored under the proposed legislation. Here's the proposed change to CCIOA within the bill:

38-33.3-106.5. Prohibitions contrary to public policy patriotic, political, or religious expression - public rights-of-way - fire prevention - renewable energy generation devices - affordable housing - drought prevention measures - child care - definitions.

(3) (a) NOTWITHSTANDING ANY PROVISION IN THE DECLARATION, BYLAWS, OR RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE ASSOCIATION TO THE CONTRARY, AN ASSOCIATION SHALL NOT PROHIBIT ACCESSORY DWELLING UNITS, MIDDLE HOUSING, HOUSING IN TRANSIT-ORIENTED AREAS, AND HOUSING IN KEY CORRIDORS. ANY SUCH PROHIBITION ON THE PERMITTING OF ACCESSORY DWELLING UNITS OR MIDDLE HOUSING IS VOID AS A MATTER OF PUBLIC POLICY IN ANY WAY THAT IS PROHIBITED BY ARTICLE 33 OF TITLE 29.

Take action!

If you oppose this bill, you are encouraged to contact the bill's sponsors and committee members. Let them know where you stand. A simple message to your elected public servants is sufficient: "I oppose SB 213."

The Colorado General Assembly was scheduled to hear testimony regarding SB 213, on Thursday, April 6, in the Senate's Local Government & Housing Committee.

Let your opinion be heard on future bills like SB 213:

Land Use | Colorado General Assembly.

Here is a link to find your legislators.

Key contacts:

Gov. Jared Polis:
303-866-2885 GovernorPolis@state.co.us

Sen. Dominick Moreno (Sponsor):
720-985-1132 Moreno.Dominick@gmail.com

Rep. Iman Jodeh (Sponsor):
303-866-2919 Iman.Jodeh.House@coleg.gov

Rep. Seven Woodrow (Sponsor):
303-866-2967 Steven.Woodrow.House@coleg.gov

Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis:
303-866-5291 Sonya.Jaquez.Lewis.Senate@coleg.gov

Sen. Tony Exum:
303-866-6364 Tony.Exum.Senate@coleg.gov

Sen. Julie Gonzales:
303-866-4862 Julie.Gonzales.Senate@coleg.gov

Sen. Byron Pelton:
303-866-6360 Byron.Pelton.Senate@coleg.gov

Sen. Rod Pelton:
303-866-4884 Rod.Pelton.Senate@coleg.gov

Sen. Janice Rich:
303-866-3077 JaniceRichSD7@gmail.com

Sen. Dylan Roberts:
303-866-4871 Dylan.Roberts.Senate@coleg.gov

Articles

Here are two articles that explain some of the deficiencies in SB 213.

Invasive land use bill facing fierce opposition from mountain communities - Eagle County municipalities respond to 'invasive' bill introduced by governor and Democratic state leaders, by Ali Longwell, Vail Daily, April 4, 2023.

Colorado municipalities are scrambling to react to a sweeping land use bill introduced Wednesday, March 22, by Gov. Jared Polis and Democratic state lawmakers.

In Eagle County, local municipalities are expressing concerns that while the bill has the stated goal to address the state's housing crisis, it will have the adverse effect, undermining the creative efforts and control of local towns and cities to address this crisis themselves...

The Colorado Municipal League - of which Avon, Vail, Eagle, Gypsum, Minturn and Red Cliff are all members municipalities - is opposing the bill in its entirety, calling it "the most sweeping attempt in recent Colorado history to remove local control and home rule authority from elected leaders, professional planning staff, and the people of Colorado."...

"The bill would alter over 100 years of municipal authority over land use and zoning in Colorado and place state agencies in charge of regulating and enforcing decisions currently made at the local level," he said. "It's a vote of no confidence in local government and in citizens in having a say in how they would like their own neighborhoods and communities to develop."...

Senate Bill 213 land-use mandate just more big government, by Natalie Menten, Complete Colorado, April 6, 2023:

Ridding municipalities of zoning laws might sound seductive to advocates of limited-government, but that's not what's log-rolled into Senate Bill 213, the "More Housing Now" measure supported by pseudo libertarian Colorado Governor Jared Polis.

The governor claims that the bill strengthens property rights, but the over 100-pages of new rules and bureaucracy looks more like a state government power grab. The fiscal note hasn't yet been released, but at minimum it will be $15 million annually redirected from general funds to yet more subsidized housing.

Here's a dozen ways that the SB 213 land use mandate is just more big government.

  1. Creates state strategic growth rules, laws, and bureaucracy.
  2. Removes local choice in exchange for state authority and rules.
  3. Dictates minimum residential density limits under state authority.
  4. Eliminates choices of a unit owners' association (HOAs).
  5. Reduces transportation funding to non-compliant communities.
  6. Minimum $15 million annual price tag to supply more government controlled, taxpayer subsidized housing.
  7. Increases government interference in the housing market by requiring local governments to adopt and implement strategic affordable growth strategies.
  8. Creates a new housing plans assistance fund on top of the multiple taxpayer funds already present.
  9. Attempts to create government price controls by forcibly lowering property values through mandates.
  10. Establishes a state model code for "inclusionary zoning" to require developments to have subsidized units, to be paid for by non-subsidized tenants or taxpayers.
  11. The bill's goal to dramatically increase density doesn't account for our limited water capacity.
  12. SB 213 abuses use of the "safety clause" which would prohibit any citizen referendum allowing voters to weigh-in on this issue.

The main reason the measure is being pushed through the legislature is because it provides a tool for state government to implement the required density under Proposition 123 (tax revenue dedicated to subsidized housing), but as has been well documented, density doesn't equate to affordable. Couple together the effects we're just beginning to see from passage of Prop 123 with the proposed House Bill 1190, which grants first dibs to government and caps prices in multi-unit property sales, there's no good reason to support SB 213 as written....

More articles

This legislation could wreck your neighborhood - SB-213 would strip cities of ability to make key zoning choices, by Krista Kafer, 7 April 2023.

Colorado governor, Democrats: limit construction of accessory-dwelling units, duplexes and triplexes, by Jesse Paul and Elliott Wenzler, Colorado Sun, 23 March 2023.

Push for High-Density Housing Rooted in Racial and Environmental Agendas, by Beth Brelje and Matt McGregor, Epoch Times, 19 June 2022.

California sues Huntington Beach over failure to follow housing laws in warning to other cities, by Marisa Kendall, Mercury News, 6 April 2023.