March 3, 2025 | Sign-on letter
This letter, signed by over 20 housing and environmental groups, urges local elected officials and staff in Colorado to take steps toward complying with the 2024 state land use laws on Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), Minimum Parking Requirements, Transit-Oriented Communities, and Housing Needs Planning. These laws offer local leaders an important opportunity to address Colorado’s housing affordability crisis, create more walkable and transit-friendly communities, and support climate goals. The letter outlines the benefits of each law, provides links to resources and guidance materials for implementation, and presents polling results demonstrating broad public support for these data-driven policy solutions.
Local Elected Officials and Staff,
We, the undersigned organizations, urge you to move forward toward compliance with the 2024 state land use laws, specifically those pertaining to Accessory Dwelling Units (HB24-1152), Minimum Parking Requirements (HB24-1304), Transit-Oriented Communities (HB24-1313), and Housing Needs Planning (SB24-174). These laws provide a crucial opportunity for local governments to address Colorado’s persistent housing affordability crisis at a time when “cost of living” and “housing affordability” are the top two concerns for Colorado residents. Coloradans are looking to policymakers like you for action, and these laws provide data-driven solutions to lower housing costs while creating more efficient, resilient, and climate-friendly development.
Colorado is currently 105,000 homes short of a stable market, and with population growth projected at 1.7 million by 2050, and nearly 90% of that growth located along the Front Range, action is urgent. A shortage of homes drives up rents. In the Denver metro area, a 50,000-unit shortfall has contributed to a 32% rise in housing prices over the past five years, increasing financial strain, displacement, evictions, and homelessness. Now, nearly half of Coloradans are cost-burdened, spending over 30% of their income on housing. The housing crisis hits low-income households the hardest and the vast majority of the unmet housing need is for families earning less than the median income. This highlights the need to:
- Create more housing at all income levels by allowing more housing types and development opportunities, and
- Increase affordable housing options for low-income households by investing in both the production and preservation of subsidized affordable housing.
Failing to address the high cost of housing will continue to make it difficult for Coloradans, including our children and grandchildren, as well as essential workers like nurses, teachers, and firefighters, to live here. We must work together to create more affordable home choices for people with jobs here. Housing markets function regionally, and when one community restricts development, it hinders neighboring efforts to provide affordable housing. Therefore, every jurisdiction must do its part to create housing opportunities. These state laws ensure that each local government plays a role in addressing the crisis.
In addition to addressing Colorado’s housing and affordability challenges, increasing home choices near jobs and transit provides numerous benefits by advancing the state’s climate, transportation, and resilience goals. Under current policies, nearly half of the housing needed by 2050 will be built outside our developed areas on open space and farmland, far from jobs, transit, and services. This would require major investments in new infrastructure and services, increase water and land consumption, create more congestion, and drive up emissions. In contrast, a scenario where we allow more attached and multifamily housing types and focus growth inside our developed urban areas would reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new housing by 31% because multifamily housing is inherently more efficient, using 30–55% less energy and 63–86% less water than single-detached units.
Transportation is Colorado’s largest source of GHG emissions and the sector furthest from meeting our 2030 climate targets. When people can live near their work, school, and other daily needs, it makes it much easier and more likely to walk, bike, or take transit to get around. And even when people do need to drive, distances to their destinations tend to be shorter, causing less pollution. Colorado households in compact, mixed-use areas drive 20–40% less and own fewer cars. This not only cuts pollution and congestion, but it also saves Coloradans money on transportation – the second-highest household expense after housing – while improving access to jobs and services for those who don’t drive.
As you move forward in your review and assessment, we want to unpack the potential benefits of the state land use laws, which were informed by data-driven analysis and real-world evidence from other states and cities, including some in Colorado.
1) The Benefits of House Bill 24-1152, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU):
- Increases housing supply and affordability by allowing homeowners to build ADUs, homes that fit in seamlessly with the neighborhood scale. ADUs increase housing options for smaller households, lower income households, and the elderly wishing to age in their neighborhoods.
- Enables ADU production by requiring cities to align local codes with ADU best practices and design standards that have been shown to increase ADU construction in other parts of the country. For example, giving homeowners more parking flexibility rather than requiring a dedicated off-street parking space tripled ADU permits in Seattle. (HB24-1152 has exemptions on parking regulation as described in the DOLA guidance.)
- Promotes sustainable land use by enabling more energy and water-efficient housing types near existing infrastructure, services, and jobs.
- Provides financial assistance to local governments that comply with the ADU law. ADUs are expensive to build, and HB24-1152 creates a $13 million grant program for compliant jurisdictions to help finance and facilitate ADU development, create pre-approved plans, and build affordable ADUs for low and middle-income Coloradans.
- For more information, see DOLA’s new guidance on HB24-1152.
According to a 2024 poll, 78% of Colorado voters support allowing ADUs to be built on single-family properties.
2) The Benefits of House Bill 24-1304, Minimum Parking Requirements:
- Right-sizes parking supply. Eliminating minimum parking mandates will not stop new parking spaces from being built. Rather, it’ll give each project the flexibility to have the amount of parking it needs. Studies show that 40–50% of parking spaces in multifamily buildings near transit sit empty during peak times, wasting money and land that could be used for housing or businesses. There are 8 parking spaces for every 1 car in the US.
- Lowers housing costs. A single parking space costs $9,000 to $50,000 per space, costs that are typically bundled in the price of housing, driving up rents by $200-300 per month. These costs are passed on to renters and buyers, even those who don’t use the parking.
- Increases housing supply and enables affordable housing projects. By making more projects financially feasible, parking reform can boost homebuilding in Colorado by 40-70%. This is especially critical for affordable housing, as many projects are downsized, canceled, or never considered in the first place due to the cost and spatial requirements of excessive parking mandates.
- Promotes walkable, transit-friendly communities. Parking mandates increase driving, fueling more congestion and pollution while reducing walkability by pushing destinations further apart. Large lots contribute to sprawl, the heat island effect, and stormwater pollution.
- Encourages innovation in parking solutions: Mandating minimum parking discourages creative and cost-effective solutions to optimize the use of existing underutilized parking and encourage clean, efficient, and affordable transportation options. The bill directed state agencies to publish a report, Best Practices in Parking Management Strategies for Colorado Communities, with recommended strategies for cities to better manage their existing and new parking.
- For more information and maps, see DOLA’s new guidance on HB24-1304.
3) The Benefits of House Bill 24-1313, Housing in Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC):
- Increases housing supply and enables affordable housing projects by ensuring local governments allow a minimum amount of multifamily housing opportunities near frequent transit. The housing types supported by HB24-1313 rent for 25–35% less than single-family homes. In addition, lower per-unit costs and better financing structures make subsidized affordable housing more financially viable for multifamily developments than dispersed single-unit homes.
- Saves people money: Housing and transportation are the two largest household expenses for Coloradans, and they disproportionately affect low-income households. By creating more affordable housing opportunities near transit, HB24-1313 improves financial stability. Combining this with a menu of affordability strategies in the law, such as Prop 123 eligibility and density bonuses, will produce more subsidized affordable housing. Additionally, $65 million in new state Affordable Housing Tax Credits will support projects in designated TOCs.
- Boosts transit ridership and walkability, and reduces carbon emissions: Higher density areas generate higher transit ridership, yet over 90% of RTD’s rail station and 84% of frequent bus corridor areas are below the minimum density levels necessary to support frequent transit service. Instead of compact mixed-use development, many transit areas are surrounded by empty parking lots, warehouses, and underutilized strip malls. By encouraging more housing near transit, we can increase transit utilization, reducing congestion and pollution.
- Addresses Displacement Risk: The law acknowledges the potential for large developments to displace residents and businesses through demolition or rising property values. For this reason, the law requires the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) to conduct a Displacement Risk Assessment by June 30, 2025, to identify strategies and resources for mitigating displacement. This proactive approach aims to protect vulnerable communities, helping residents stay in their homes as development occurs.
- Balances Statewide Coordination with Local Flexibility: The TOC law sets housing density goals near transit but lets local governments decide how to meet them, ensuring solutions fit local context and infrastructure capacity.
- Funds Infrastructure Improvements: A new $35 million grant program will help local governments upgrade infrastructure in designated transit centers and neighborhood hubs.
- Respects local water planning: The law does not require jurisdictions to approve individual projects if they lack the water supply or infrastructure to support the development. It also allows local governments to analyze whether their water supply is sufficient to support the housing units expected under HB24-1313 compliance, and, if the Housing Opportunity Goal is too high, local governments can propose a revised goal that aligns with its water supply.
- A point of clarity: The Housing Opportunity Goal sets a target for residential zoning capacity in transit areas, which includes existing zoning capacity. Some cities may already meet their individual goals. However, it’s important to recognize that not all zoning capacity is utilized, and therefore, zoning capacity should not be conflated with housing production forecasts. According to DOLA’s analysis, the average zoning buffer for subject transit areas is 13.4%, meaning there is one existing housing unit for every 7.5 units of zoning capacity. Just because land is zoned for housing doesn’t guarantee that maximum development will occur. Many multifamily and mixed-use zones contain car dealerships, standalone drive-thru restaurants, and other nonresidential uses. This highlights the need to zone for residential development well beyond our long-term housing goals.
- For more information and maps, see DOLA’s new guidance on HB24-1313.
According to a 2024 poll, 68% of Colorado voters support a state law requiring cities and counties to build more housing near transit.
4) The Benefits of Senate Bill 24-174, Housing Needs Planning:
- Addresses housing needs and affordability by outlining a comprehensive and standardized process to assess each community’s housing needs and take action to meet those needs. Many local governments have already completed a Housing Needs Assessment and these may count toward compliance. In addition, local governments can participate in a regional housing needs assessment, like the one completed by the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) in 2024.
- Promotes more responsible and sustainable growth by directing the state to conduct a Strategic Growth study with recommendations to promote more efficient, sustainable, and climate-friendly development patterns that prioritize housing choices near transit and jobs over exurban sprawl.
- Addresses Displacement Risk by directing state agencies to work with stakeholders on Displacement Risk Assessment Guidance. This guidance helps local governments identify those at risk of displacement early, allowing them to implement strategies to prevent and mitigate displacement as they plan for community growth and change.
- Supports local housing planning with DOLA resources as well as a $15 million grant program for local housing needs assessments, housing actions plan, and comprehensive plan elements.
- For more information, see DOLA’s new guidance on SB24-174.
According to a 2024 poll, 72% of Colorado voters support a law requiring local governments to develop housing plans.
These laws are essential for addressing Colorado’s housing affordability crisis and promoting sustainable growth, and we urge you to move toward compliance. As you evaluate these laws and determine how best to adapt them to your communities, we are available as a resource for meetings and briefings. We appreciate your leadership in building a more affordable, sustainable, and livable Colorado.
Sincerely,
Southwest Energy Efficiency Project
Conservation Colorado
Neighborhood Development Collaborative
Colorado Coalition for the Homeless
Housing Colorado
Elevation Community Land Trust
Gary Community Ventures
Urban Land Conservancy
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council)
The Denver Foundation
Boulder Housing Network
Thrive Economics
Signal Tech Coalition
YIMBY Denver
Sustainable Urban Planning Advisors
Vibrant Littleton
YIMBY Fort Collins
People Centered Colorado Springs
Centennial State Prosperity
Launch Longmont
Vibrant Englewood
The post Colorado sign-on letter: Implementation of the state land use laws first appeared on Southwest Energy Efficiency Project.