The Colorado legislature began its mad rush into weekend work on Friday as the end of the 2024 session comes into sight, with plenty of major legislation still unfinished. Lawmakers have until the end of the day Wednesday to finish up bills on gun regulations, housing, land use policy, transportation, property tax reform and other priorities.
This story will be updated throughout the day.
Updated at 11:58 a.m.: At long last, House Bill 1313 — the measure that would encourage and then require denser residential development near transit-rich areas in Front Range cities — is heading to the Senate floor.
The bill passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday morning, after being bumped from that committee’s calendar 24 hours before. Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat whose soft support helped the bill pass its first Senate committee, backed it again Friday, along with several other Democrats. Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, a moderate Democrat who’s a land-use reform skeptic, voted no.
The committee added amendments allowing for more areas to be exempt from local governments’ required density calculations, at the request of Democratic Sen. Jeff Bridges, who was skeptical of a similar policy last year. The bill was also changed to improve anti-displacement and anti-gentrification measures as more development occurs in cities, a priority for Gonzales.
The bill now heads to the Senate floor, where two other land-use reform bills — one to allow for more accessory-dwelling units (ADUs) to be built, the other to eliminate minimum parking requirements — are languishing amid opposition from Republicans and moderate Democrats.
The parking bill has been considered and delayed repeatedly in recent days. On Thursday night, Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican, announced a slew of amendments that would weaken the bill. But then Sen. Robert Rodriguez, the Senate’s majority leader, moved to delay the bill again.
An amendment already added to the bill allow local governments to require minimum parking on certain developments, so long as those governments check several boxes to prove the development needs the required parking. More changes appear to be coming.
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Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, a Pueblo Democrat sponsoring the bill, said Friday morning that it had the votes to pass. But opponents, including some Democrats, were threatening lengthy filibusters that would derail proceedings in the chamber in the final days of the session. One of the opponents, Fort Collins Democratic Sen. Joann Ginal, wants her city exempted altogether, Hinrichsen said.
“That, to me, is extremely inappropriate and not how we do public policy,” he said.
Hinrichsen said he’s still working to resolve concerns from another Democrat, Sen. Kyle Mullica, who’s also sponsoring the ADUs bill.
“If the policy has the votes, then it’s about cooling temperatures,” Hinrichsen said. “And that’s harder to gauge.”
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