Single-family homeowners in the most populous parts of Colorado would be allowed to build accessory dwelling units on their properties under a bill introduced Tuesday in the legislature aiming to override local zoning rules in areas that currently prohibit them.
House Bill 1152 is the first of several marquee bills that Democrats at the Capitol, in partnership with Gov. Jared Polis, are expected to introduce this year that would target city and county land use regulations in an effort to tackle Colorado’s affordable housing crisis.
A similar push last year ended in a political dumpster fire for the governor when he tried to pack an array of changes into one measure that ultimately failed after weeks of animosity between him and local leaders. In 2024, Polis plans to pursue the same policy changes, albeit through bite-sized pieces of legislation — the first of which is the accessory dwelling units bill introduced Tuesday.
Accessory dwelling units, also called ADUs, granny flats or casitas, are secondary residences that are either attached or adjacent to single-family homes. They’re often rented out or used for visiting family members and have long been seen as a way to boost Colorado’s housing stock and drive down the cost of living. Homeowners also rent them out to tourists as short-term vacation rentals.
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Research by Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored housing corporation, has found that ADUs are far more affordable than apartments and standalone housing units, but local prohibitions have limited their proliferation in all but a handful of places across the country.
In Denver, for instance, a residential lot must be in a certain area to be zoned for an ADU to be legally built. The lot’s size determines how big the ADU can be. Getting a variance can be difficult.
On Tuesday, bill sponsors told The Colorado Sun they view ADUs as a small piece of solving Colorado’s housing crunch, one that can appeal to senior citizens and workers alike.
“People are struggling to live where they work,” said Sen. Kyle Mullica, D-Thornton. “This is an opportunity to try to solve that and put more affordable units on the market.”
Rep. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder, said that before she joined the legislature, she built a shower and a kitchenette in a room above her garage for her son, who suffers from mental illness and needed a separate living space.
The city cracked down on the illegal unit, and her son was left homeless for months, she said, spending the night in shelters and occasionally in a sleeping bag on her porch.
“That shouldn’t be happening,” Amabile said. “It’s about your own personal property rights.”
The rules in House Bill 1152 would only apply to communities covered by a metropolitan planning organization, including Denver and much of the Front Range, as well as Grand Junction. Cities with fewer than 1,000 people would be exempt, as would unincorporated communities with fewer than 10,000 residents.
Mountain resort communities would also be exempt, said House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a nod to concerns that homeowners there will promote them as short-term vacation rentals rather than provide housing to Coloradans.
The measure would also create two new programs to promote the construction of ADUs. One would provide grants to local governments that could be used to waive permitting fees for ADUs. Another would provide low-interest financing to low- to moderate-income homeowners who want to build accessory units on their properties. To qualify, homeowners would have to rent their units at an affordable rate.
Local governments are skeptical of the measure — a sign that months of negotiations leading up to the session have not resulted in broad support for Polis’ housing plans.
Kevin Bommer, who leads the Colorado Municipal League, which represents cities and towns across Colorado, called the bill “a good start.” But he worries that it “undermines local decision-making.”
“The state should absolutely be in the business of incentives,” he told The Sun, “but this legislation, as introduced, also crosses a well-established line of unconstitutional preemption of home rule land use authority.”
Bommer said that applies to a number of housing bills introduced at the Capitol this year.
Amabile acknowledged the complaint. But she suggested local officials aren’t united on the matter.
“I’ve gotten two kinds of feedback – one is, we don’t want the state telling us what to do,” Amabile said. “The other feedback is please get this done because we know our community members want it, but we have these loud, very vocal groups that are shutting down any progress.”
The Democratic majority at the Capitol is also expected to bring legislation that would require cities to allow denser residential zoning around bus and train stops, as well as a measure that would limit residential parking requirements.
“Transit-oriented and connected communities can create a better future for our state and drive our prosperity and our enjoyment with less traffic, more housing people can actually afford, better air quality,” Polis said in his State of the State address this month.
The legislature is already debating a few other major housing measures.
One is House Bill 1007, which would prohibit local governments from limiting the number of unrelated people who can live together, except for health and safety reasons, like fire code and water quality regulations. The legislation passed out of the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee on Tuesday by an 8-3, party-line vote. It now heads to the full House for more debate.
Senate Bill 2, which passed unanimously on Tuesday out of the Senate Local Government and Housing Committee, would give local governments more leeway to create property tax rebate programs aimed at boosting affordable housing.
Awaiting its first hearing is House Bill 1098, which would prohibit landlords from evicting tenants before their lease is up unless they have legal cause to do so, such as situations when a property is unlawfully occupied, rent goes unpaid or a tenant otherwise violates their lease. Landlords could still evict a tenant if they plan to take the home off the rental market.
A similar measure failed last year.
The measure has some high-profile support: McCluskie and House Majority Leader Monica Duran, a Wheat Ridge Democrat who is a lead sponsor of the bill.
Nevertheless, Senate President Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat, cast doubt Tuesday on whether House Bill 1098 would make it across the finish line in 2024, given doubts about the measure in his chamber and how Polis has been a vocal skeptic of the idea. The governor worries it would actually drive up housing costs.
“I don’t know that the political landscape has changed since last year,” he told reporters. “I don’t think Jared Polis has changed since last year. I think the question is: Can people come together and figure out the path forward on these various bills that pleases the folks who are advocating the bills and also is done in a way that has 18, 33 and one.”
It takes 18 votes for a bill to pass the Senate and 33 votes for a measure to pass the House. The governor then must approve any bill before it becomes law — hence the one.
“I think it’ll be a tight vote, one way or the other — win or lose by a vote or two,” Fenberg said.
The legislative session runs through May 8.