{"id":62953,"date":"2026-05-07T03:08:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T01:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/housesmarketplace.trio-tv.com\/state-zoning-preemption-tested-as-colorado-lot-bills-fail\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T03:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T01:08:30","slug":"state-zoning-preemption-tested-as-colorado-lot-bills-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housesmarketplace.trio-tv.com\/ru\/state-zoning-preemption-tested-as-colorado-lot-bills-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"State zoning preemption tested as Colorado lot bills fail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After years of pushing housing affordability reforms, Colorado legislators hit a wall \u2014 crashing up against the limits of how much zoning control they could strip from local governments.<\/p>\n

This year, they sought to require most cities to allow single-family homes on lots as small as 2,000 square feet, about a third the size of typical lots in many locales. The bill passed the state\u2019s House but stalled in the Senate in late April. A similar bill \u2013 requiring cities to allow owners to split lots \u2013 also passed the House before meeting the same fate.<\/p>\n

Colorado has emerged as a national model for state-level zoning reform that pre-empts local governments. <\/p>\n

That has come with a price. Home rule cities sued Democratic Gov. Jared Polis over an \u0443\u043a\u0430\u0437<\/a> threatening to cut them off from $280 million in grants, loans and tax credits if they did not comply with major housing reforms he signed into law two years ago.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s struggle illustrates a defining feature of the nation\u2019s housing debate: Party affiliation provides no immunity from political blowback. <\/p>\n

A Republican-controlled Texas legislature passed Senate Bill 15 last year, capping the minimum lot size cities can require at 3,000 square feet, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law in June 2025. Yet even in Texas, the bill drew fierce opposition from local governments. It\u2019s the same local-control fights playing out in Colorado.<\/p>\n

Seeking smaller lots for smaller, more affordable homes<\/h2>\n

Sen. Matt Ball, the bill\u2019s Senate sponsor, opened an April 23 committee hearing on House Bill 1114<\/a> by acknowledging the need for lot-size reduction. He then quickly delivered the bill\u2019s death sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do want to say at the outset that we will hear witness testimony on this bill, and then I will be postponing it indefinitely,\u201d Ball said.<\/p>\n

A week later, Ball delivered the same message for the lot-split bill at the same Senate committee meeting, but without witness testimony. The arguments for smaller homes and density had already been made.<\/p>\n

Knowing the HB 1114 was dead, proponents and opponents proceeded with testimony.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we used 2,000 as kind of a pre-bubble benchmark for home ownership rate and maintained it, we\u2019d have 62,000 more owner-occupied units today,\u201d Scott Cox, a Colorado-based home building consultant and a contributor to The Builder\u2019s Daily, told the committee.<\/p>\n

Cox noted that much of the legislative effort on housing \u2014 at both the local and state levels \u2014 targets rental rather than owner-occupied housing. \u201cIf we do not find ways to allow more single-family housing, we are guaranteed that those prices will continue to rise faster than the majority of the population\u2019s ability to pay for it,\u201d Cox said. \u201cDetached homes will become, simply become a luxury good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tim Lightly, CEO of the Colorado Association of Home Builders<\/strong>, noted that HB 1114 does not mandate smaller homes or smaller lots. \u201cThis represents one of the first proposals in a very long time to be truly free market oriented,\u201d Lightly said. \u201cIt says we\u2019re going to legalize a greater variety of housing and let the market determine where it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arguments for and against<\/h2>\n

Nationally, smaller homes draw support as a path to ownership for first-time buyers and empty nesters downsizing. AARP has backed smaller housing in states across the country for seniors choosing to age in place.<\/p>\n

Echoing that theme, Kip Kolkmeier, a retired land-use attorney and former chair of the Lakewood Planning Commission, told the committee that he and his wife had to leave the city because smaller homes to downsize into simply did not exist. Kolkmeier said smaller lots reduce land costs \u2014 one of the biggest factors in home prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are clamoring for this,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is what your constituents want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all municipalities agreed. City leaders in Lakewood, a Denver suburb, voted in new zoning maps for higher density and smaller homes last October, but voters repealed them in early April. Voters in several other municipalities across the state also rejected higher density in referendums<\/a> \u0432 \u043d\u043e\u044f\u0431\u0440\u0435.<\/p>\n

Fear that density would destroy established neighborhoods carried the day. Cities repeated objections familiar to every statehouse, arguing that preemption ignores local needs and strips away planning authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cCities are cool with top-down mandates as long as they\u2019re the top, but the most local decision maker is the landowner,\u201d Tim Pegg, with YIMBY North Metro<\/strong>, said in testimony. \u201cI\u2019m asking the state to protect landowners from overzealous local regulation that artificially drives up the cost of homes and lowers people\u2019s quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After years of pushing housing affordability reforms, Colorado legislators hit a wall \u2014 crashing up against the limits of how much zoning control they could strip from local governments. This year, they sought to require most cities to allow single-family homes on lots as small as 2,000 square feet, about a third the size of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nState zoning preemption tested as Colorado lot bills fail - Houses Marketplace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/housesmarketplace.trio-tv.com\/ru\/state-zoning-preemption-tested-as-colorado-lot-bills-fail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ru_RU\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"State zoning preemption tested as Colorado lot bills fail - Houses Marketplace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After years of pushing housing affordability reforms, Colorado legislators hit a wall \u2014 crashing up against the limits of how much zoning control they could strip from local governments. 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