Colorado Politics published a timely reminder that “home rule” is not some dusty civics term. It is one of the few protections local communities have against the permanent temptation of power in Denver to micromanage everybody else. In their April 11, 2026 piece, Tom Cronin and Bob Loevy argue that home rule has protected Colorado cities for more than 125 years by letting them govern local affairs through their own charters instead of being bossed around by the governor and legislature on every local question. The column traces that protection back to the 1904 constitutional amendment that gave Denver home-rule authority after years of direct state interference in city governance.
The authors say the old balance is now being challenged in a serious way. They point to recent state laws overriding local zoning and subdivision authority in the name of more housing density, including lot splits and apartment construction along arterial streets. Their central point is straightforward: after well over a century of respecting local control in city land-use decisions, the people under the Gold Dome have decided they know better. And that, not coincidentally, is exactly what local elected officials have been saying for years.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Cronin and Loevy say home rule became a defining feature of Colorado local government after the 1904 constitutional amendment gave Denver the right to govern its own municipal affairs. Back then, apparently, somebody in this state still recognized that local people might know local problems better than the Capitol does.
- The column walks through the 1894 “City Hall War,” when state power and city authority collided so hard the militia surrounded Denver City Hall. Nice little historical footnote there. Colorado has been dealing with centralizing control freaks for a long time. They just use smoother language now.
- The authors argue that for about 120 years, home-rule powers were largely left alone. Then the modern legislature showed up, stared at a century of settled practice, and said, “What if we ignored that too?”
- Recent state laws, they write, have overridden local land-use rules to force more density, including split lots and apartments along major streets, all sold under the banner of affordable housing. Because in Denver, “local control” now apparently means “local control until the Capitol gets cranky.”
- The piece focuses on home-rule cities, but the principle is bigger than cities. Once the state gets comfortable overruling local judgment on one issue, it rarely develops a sudden respect for boundaries on the next one.
My Bottom Line
I may be a little late to this one, but it matters enough to say plainly.
This article recognizes what local government representatives have been warning about for years: Jared Polis and his Democrat cronies do not care about home rule except when it is politically useful. In their view, the smart people are always in Denver. The wise people are always under the dome. The enlightened people are always the ones furthest from the dirt, the roads, the ranches, the budgets, and the consequences. That is not public service. That is arrogance with a press office.
And it tells you something real about Polis. At his core, he is a centralizer. An autocrat in a fleece vest. He may wrap it in the language of affordability, progress, or statewide need, but the instinct is always the same: override the locals, flatten the differences, and impose the one-size-fits-all answer cooked up by the ruling class. That might play in Boulder. It is a rotten fit for places like Weld County.
And let us be clear on that point. Home-rule municipalities are fairly common. Home-rule counties are rare. Only two of Colorado’s 64 counties are home rule: Pitkin and Weld. That gives Weld a real constitutional tool, not some ceremonial title. I have long challenged my fellow commissioners to stand up and use that authority more aggressively against Polis and his autocrats when they trample local judgment. There has not been much appetite for that fight. I will keep pushing anyway.
Because the one-size-fits-all policies that emerge from Democrats under the Gold Dome are decidedly wrong for Weld County. We do not need Denver deciding what is best for us any more than Denver needed the governor running City Hall in 1894. Home rule means something, or it means nothing. And if we are not willing to defend it when it is inconvenient, then we should stop pretending local government is anything more than a branch office for the Capitol.
Source: Colorado Politics
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