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It’s been an interesting year at the state capitol as legislators grapple with an extreme budget deficit while still trying to chip away at challenges such as housing and climate change. It’s been a very active year for housing bills in particular, with a common theme of the state venturing into land use policies typically handled at the city or county government level.
AIA Colorado is excited to announce that HB26-1001: Housing Developments on Qualifying Properties (or the HOME Act) has just been signed into law! We supported this bill that will make it easier for mission-driven non-profit residential developers to get through project approval processes. This can be for land they own or when they partner with school districts, higher-ed campuses, and transit authorities. Housing projects that rely on affordability-related financing sources are especially vulnerable to cost increases resulting from delays.
We’re currently supporting four additional bills, including, HB26-1065: Transit and Housing Investment Zones, HB26-1066: Tax Exemptions Low Income Rental Property Development, SB26-049: Homeowner Natural Disaster Mitigation, and SB26-109: Building Code Accessibility. It’s slow going though as every single dollar the state might spend to implement a bill is being scrutinized.
AIA Colorado is also taking an amend position on three more bills. HB26-1236: Arbitration Reform may have unintended consequences affecting architects, but the bill sponsors are preparing amendments to address these issues. HB26-1334: Modify Standards of Wildfire Resiliency Code Board seeks to delay implementation of the new wildland-urban interface wildfire code. We’re watching closely to ensure any delays are only for as long as necessary. SB26-102: Large-Load Data Centers puts many reasonable guardrails in place for new 30MW+ data centers but includes renewable energy requirements that may effectively prohibit any new data center development. We’re working closely with the bill sponsors (who are managing a very large group of stakeholders) to find a path to success.
It’s going to be a busy six final weeks of the legislative session this year. A lot of good bills may not make it to the finish line with limited funding available. As is often the case though, they can be brought back in a future session when our budget situation stabilizes.