Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Tag: Affordable housing

Condo reform bill becomes law–after years of lawsuits, delays and rising insurance costs
No Comments
Approved, Colorado Politics, State

Condo reform bill becomes law–after years of lawsuits, delays and rising insurance costs

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Gov. Jared Polis on Monday signed the first major bill of his administration that sponsors hope would unclog the state's longstanding logjam regarding the construction of affordable, middle-market multi-family housing, specifically condos and townhomes, and, thereby directly promote home ownership. Past efforts by the governor had mostly focused on rental housing and zoning.  This year, House Bill 1272 aims to jumpstart the affordable condo market, which backers say has died off in Colorado due to "construction defects" litigation.  This bill puts Colorado more in line with other states that see condo construction and protects homeowners from legitimate defects, Polis said. "There's no silver bullet" for dealing wi...
Read More
Denver rent down $65, but rising costs leave renters struggling
No Comments
Approved, Denverite, Local

Denver rent down $65, but rising costs leave renters struggling

By Kyle Harris | Denverite When Cassie Welch Rubin moved to Denver in 2022, she paid $1,400 a month for a bug-infested, rundown studio apartment in University Hills, a neighborhood she hated. To get to her job, she took a two-hour bus ride each way.   This year, Rubin left her University Hills studio for a one-bedroom in Capitol Hill. She’s still paying $1,400 – but for a larger place in a central Denver neighborhood. “I’m really happy with the location,” she said.  Trees line the blocks. She’s close to museums, the botanic gardens and the zoo. She wakes up long before dawn for her 3 a.m. shift as a produce manager at King Soopers. But now she’s a short walk — not a two hour-long bus ride — away from her job. Like many other renters in Denver, Rubin has found ...
Read More
“YIGBY” bill to let churches build housing on their land fails without Senate support
No Comments
Approved, Colorado Politics, State

“YIGBY” bill to let churches build housing on their land fails without Senate support

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics The campaign known as "YIGBY" - "Yes in God's Backyard" - to allow churches, school districts, colleges, and universities to build affordable housing on their land failed in the waning days of the Colorado legislative session.  House Bill 1169 would have required local governments to allow residential development on land owned by those institutions. The bill has sat in the state Senate, awaiting debate, since it cleared the Senate's Local Government and Housing Committee on March 27.  On Monday, its sponsors, Sens. Tony Exum, D-Colorado Springs, and Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, acknowledged the bill didn't have the votes to pass and asked that it be laid over to May 8, the day after the session's end, which effectively would kill ...
Read More
Treta: Denver’s broken permitting system is driving up housing costs—and it’s time to fix it
No Comments
Commentary, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Treta: Denver’s broken permitting system is driving up housing costs—and it’s time to fix it

By Robert Treta | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice I’ve been designing and building homes in Denver for 28 years. I pulled my first permit in 1997—for a small room addition on a house. It took one day. One. That kind of efficiency used to be the norm. Permitting was straightforward, business-friendly, and a basic example of how local government should work. But over the past two decades, I’ve watched the city’s permit approval process become increasingly bloated, inefficient, and damaging—not just to builders like me, but to every Denverite who rents or buys a home. This problem isn’t new. Denver’s permit delays became a real issue as far back as 2007, when the wait time for a standard permit grew to four months. Now, in 2024, the average wait time is 385 days. That’s more t...
Read More
Colorado Senate committee approves bill aimed at boosting condo construction
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Colorado Senate committee approves bill aimed at boosting condo construction

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics The bill that backers hope will breathe new life into Colorado's condo construction market won a solid 6-1 vote from a Senate committee. But will the bill do what backers hope — lead to a resurgence in condo construction? It depends on who gives the answer. The condo market all but died in 2010 after changes to property and casualty insurance drove those insurers out of the Colorado condo market. That has led to insurance costs of up to $40,000 per unit, which are less of an issue for a million-dollar condo but one that makes the "affordable" condo — in the $400,000 range — unaffordable. Ted Leighty of the Colorado Association of Homebuilders told the committee House Bill 1272 doesn't go far enough to solve the issue it is intended to...
Read More
HB25-1169 would strip local control, override zoning to force housing on church and school property
No Comments
Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

HB25-1169 would strip local control, override zoning to force housing on church and school property

By Tori Ganahl | Rocky Mountain Voice A bill making its way through the Colorado legislature—HB 25-1169, the “Faith and Education Land Use” bill—is under growing scrutiny from local officials, school communities, and everyday Coloradans who see it as a sweeping override of local zoning authority. The legislation, supported by Democratic lawmakers and Governor Jared Polis’s administration, mandates that cities and counties allow residential development on land owned by churches, K-12 school districts, and public colleges–regardless of existing zoning restrictions or community input. Framed as a solution to the state’s housing crisis, critics argue the bill does nothing to guarantee affordability, and instead hands over local land-use control to the state under the guise of housing ...
Read More
$3.2M Denver 17th Street tower deal aims to create 750 downtown apartments
No Comments
Approved, kdvr.com, Local

$3.2M Denver 17th Street tower deal aims to create 750 downtown apartments

By Maddie Rhodes | Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — A block in downtown Denver is converting from offices into apartment spaces after a real estate company bought two towers on 17th Street. The Luzzatto Company, a national real estate firm, purchased 621 and 633 17th St. at the start of April for $3.2 million, hoping to revitalize downtown with the over 973,000 square feet of space in the heart of Denver. Right now, it’s a handful of offices and a grassy area just outside the 16th Street Mall, but company owner Asher Luzzatto said it’s going through a complete renovation that will cost between $150 and $200 million. Within three years, Luzzatto said the company is planning 700 to 750 multi-family affordable apartment units. The company plans to include public and private spaces with a day...
Read More
Here’s how much more expensive Denver has become since 2020
No Comments
Approved, Local, Westword

Here’s how much more expensive Denver has become since 2020

By Catie Cheshire | Westword Residents across Denver’s neighborhoods are worried about the cost of living in the Mile High City, particularly related to the rising price of homes and rent. A recent study from travel-and-finance website Upgraded Points shows that they aren't imagining things: It's more expensive to live in Denver now than it was four years ago. According to the study, assorted items in Denver cost 21.5 percent more than they did in 2020, with housing costs driving a large part of the increase. Housing is 25.2 percent higher than it was in 2020, while groceries cost 17.9 percent more than they did four years ago. During the same time period, wages grew by just 16.9 percent — so Denver’s pocketbooks aren’t keeping up with what it costs to live ...
Read More
Colorado housing ‘crisis’ grows, advocates push for more money
No Comments
Approved, State, The Center Square

Colorado housing ‘crisis’ grows, advocates push for more money

By Elyse Apel | The Center Square Housing costs make Colorado one of the nation's most expensive states. This is according to a recent report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which listed Colorado as the sixth least affordable state in the country. The report focused on low-income housing and affordable homes, finding that 79% of extremely low-income renters in Colorado have a “severe cost burden” when it comes to finding housing. Extremely low-income renter households are defined as those with incomes at or below the poverty level or 30% of their area median income, whichever is greater. In Denver, that is approximately $27,400 per year. “While Coloradans of nearly all income levels are experiencing difficulties with access to affordable housing, the cir...
Read More
HB25-1211: A developer giveaway disguised as water conservation?
No Comments
Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

HB25-1211: A developer giveaway disguised as water conservation?

By Jen Schumann | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Framed as a water conservation bill, HB25-1211 passed the Colorado House on March 17, with unanimous Republican opposition and four Democrats voting against it. Despite its stated goal of ensuring fairness in water tap fees, critics argue the bill primarily benefits developers over homeowners, forcing local water districts to subsidize high-density developments while shifting costs to existing ratepayers.​ Democrat Reps. Rebecca Stewart and Sheila Lieder, sponsors of the bill, argue it is necessary to prevent water districts from using tap fees to discourage development.  “The bill makes sure that special districts aren’t using the levying of tap fees in order to influence land use, discourage more water-efficient...
Read More