AIA Colorado 2025 Day at the Capitol recap

Building upon our success last year in support of our practice act renewal, AIA Colorado returned to the state capitol this year to meet with legislative allies and share our expertise on policy issues important to the architecture profession. We had a group of twenty members across four different committees to talk about construction defect lawsuit reform and to advocate for taller single-stair multifamily residential buildings in Colorado. Improving access to housing in Colorado is a high priority for both the legislature and the governor.

Our biggest advocacy effort this year is working to address construction defect lawsuits that have held back condominium development in Colorado for more than a decade. Too many architects have been named in these lawsuits when there was no design error and this is especially common when homeowner associations bring suit on behalf of every unit owner in a community. The result has been that our liability insurance rates have skyrocketed and condo development is at a standstill. Our goal with a reform bill this year isn’t to take away a homeowners rights to seek legal remedy, but to promote better construction practices and create incentives for owners to allow builders to correct issues without lawsuits being necessary.

The other bill we’re closely tracking is the adoption of taller single-stair residential buildings (now being called “smart stair” buildings) so that we can increase unit density on smaller lot sizes. Providing two exits is standard for buildings taller than 3 stories, but the resulting double-loaded corridors make egress a significant percentage of floor plans. Increasing the height of a single-stair building to five stories would allow more density and better accommodate units with more bedrooms. AIA Colorado is working closely with legislators to evaluate appropriate safety measures that don’t put building occupants at greater risk in an emergency.

Staff Advocacy Engagement Director Nikolaus Remus, AIA, and our lobbyist Jerry Johnson, work year-round building and maintaining relationships with both Democratic and Republican legislators across the state. As a result of these efforts, we were able to confirm 18 legislator meetings ahead of the event representing our strongest allies and legislators with constituents in attendance. As is often the case during the annual legislative session, we had some curve balls thrown at us on legislator availability at the last minute.

First, we learned that the senate was going to spend the entire day debating this year’s big gun bill. Not ideal, but we figured we could pull members off the floor for brief meetings, plus a majority of our meetings were scheduled with representatives. Until we found out that the house was going to spend the morning on resolutions recognizing veterans. Which turned out to be an even bigger hurdle, as no legislator wants to be off the floor for too long during these tributes. Then the senators all went over to the house chambers for the tributes as well.

Thankfully we started before the house began its day. House Speaker Julie McCluskie helped us present our 2024 Outstanding New Legislator award to Rep. William Lindstedt, who carried our licensure bill last year.

We were able to catch a handful off legislators off the floor and Senate President James Coleman made time to meet with us to close out the morning. While it wasn’t how we planned the day, we still had productive discussions and were able to teach members about how things work at the capitol.

Not every AIA Colorado member can take time out of their busy week to participate in our advocacy efforts, but a critical component is to help friends of the architecture profession get elected and re-elected. Please support our efforts by making a contribution to ARCpac, so that AIA Colorado members can continue our campaign support. Individuals and firms can make a contribution of up to $725 every election cycle (which just began in December) but any amount is greatly appreciated.