Colorado Democrats Back Off Smaller Lot Housing Bills

Colorado Public Radio, carrying reporting from Brian Eason of The Colorado Sun through the Colorado Capitol News Alliance, reports that Colorado Democrats have abandoned two bills aimed at forcing more single-family housing onto smaller lots. House Bill 1114 would have blocked many local governments from requiring lot sizes above 2,000 square feet, while House Bill 1308 would have allowed developers to split lots and build two single-family homes where one had been planned.

Both bills passed the House with overwhelming Democratic support, but they ran into trouble in the more moderate Senate after city officials, suburban neighborhood groups, and local-control advocates pushed back. Their argument was simple: land use is local, infrastructure is not imaginary, water is not unlimited, and communities should not be redesigned by central-planning geniuses who live half a state away and think every cul-de-sac is a moral failure.

The Bullet Point Brief

• Colorado lawmakers dropped two bills that would have pushed smaller single-family lots and lot-splitting across many communities. Somewhere, a local planning director exhaled for the first time since January.
• Cities opposed the bills, saying they need the ability to manage density because traffic, water, infrastructure, and neighborhood character are real things. Who knew roads and pipes do not expand just because a legislator had a density dream?
• Neighborhood groups in suburbs like Lakewood argued communities should decide how they develop. Radical concept: people who live in a place might know something about the place.
• Recent local elections in Littleton and Lakewood showed voters pushing back against state-favored zoning changes. The great suburban normie may not attend every hearing, but apparently he can still find a ballot box.
• Housing advocates say smaller lots could help reduce costs, and builders say large-lot rules encourage expensive homes instead of more affordable options. That argument is not crazy. But neither is asking whether the water, roads, schools, fire service, and sewer capacity can handle the Legislature’s spreadsheet fantasy.

My Bottom Line

We must be doing something right down here in local government, because the grand and glorious Democrat rulers under the gold dome are starting to understand that land use decisions are local. Or at least they accidentally behaved that way for one brief, shining moment.

Maybe they are waking up to the idea that infrastructure is built to handle the needs of initial plats, not some legislator’s density daydream cooked up in a committee room. Roads are not theoretical. Water is not magic. Sewer capacity is not a TED Talk. Fire response, traffic, parking, schools, drainage, and neighborhood design all matter in the real world where people live, not just in policy papers where everyone rides a bike, works from home, and gets groceries delivered by a solar-powered fairy.

Maybe they are starting to understand that local leaders know how to meet the needs of their residents better than central planners in Denver. I doubt that is actually true. I am sure they will be back next year with the same bill wearing a different hat, because we local government leaders are obviously idiot rubes who do not understand that our betters have already solved housing with a slogan and a zoning override.

Still, for now, we will take the win. Local control survived another day. Communities get to keep asking hard questions about growth, infrastructure, water, affordability, and character. That is not anti-housing. That is responsible governing.

Colorado does need more housing. Families need places they can afford. Seniors need options to downsize. Workers need to live near jobs. But the answer is not Denver dictating one-size-fits-all land use policy to every community from Sterling to Durango. The answer is local leaders, local residents, builders, utilities, and counties doing the hard work together. Less sermon from the gold dome. More actual governing where the dirt, pipes, roads, and people are.

Source: Colorado Public Radio