Westminster and five other home rule cities are suing the state over new laws and actions the municipalities say ride roughshod over their ability to govern local land use issues.
“We have to stand up,” Mayor Nancy McNally said Monday. “They did these new sweeping bills, and no one came talk to anyone at the city about them.”
“Every time they take one more piece of silver,” McNally said.
Westminster along with Aurora, Arvada, Glendale, Greenwood Village and Lafayette filed the lawsuit on Monday in Denver District Court.
The lawsuit targets two land use bills.
One – HB 24-1304 – prohibits local governments from enacting or enforcing minimum parking requirements on multifamily housing developments located in transit areas, according to the Greenwood Village website.
The second – HB 24-1313 – requires 32 local governments in the Front Range to change their zoning in transit areas and permit a minimum density of 40 dwelling units per acre — a number that, if met, would produce 10 times the existing housing stock around RTD stops in Greenwood Village alone, according to Greenwood Village officials.
For parcels under five acres in size, there would be no public hearings on dense housing proposals, the local governments said in a joint statement.
The lawsuit also challenges an executive order issued Friday by Gov. Jared Polis that threatens local governments with withholding more than $100 million in funds if they don’t comply with a series of housing laws enacted in the last two years.
Greenwood Village Mayor George Lantz said in a statement the actions of state lawmakers and the governor are attempts to overturn the rights of residents in home rule cities to govern without government interference.
“We’re seeing a steady erosion of our citizens’ ability to control the communities in which they live,” said Lantz. “The flurry of legislative proposals continually eroding our home-rule rights applies a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach, removing all their uniqueness. The state doesn’t care how cities have carefully planned their communities, nor how the state’s particular vision of land use will affect our cities and the people living in them. Our purpose in filing the lawsuit is to have the court stop the state from controlling local land use matters that require local decision making and public input.”
Under the executive order, known as “strategic growth through compliance with state laws,” funding for local governments from various state agencies — including the Department of Transportation, the Colorado Energy Office, the Department of Local Affairs, and the Office of Economic Development and International Trade — could be tied to compliance with those laws, according to Colorado Politics.
A spokesperson for the governor defended the housing policies, adding he is confident the courts will “rule in the state’s favor,” according to Colorado Politics.
“Coloradans are demanding action from our leaders to bring down housing costs. Our state has a housing shortage, and the Governor wants to bring everyone to the table to help find solutions because this is a challenge that crosses local boundaries,” the spokesperson said. “It’s disappointing to see certain local governments that have among the priciest homes in Colorado use taxpayer money on a lawsuit that could go toward lowering the cost of housing. It’s clear this lawsuit is about preventing more housing from being built that Coloradans can afford.”