Multi-Unit Housing

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Denver’s ban on source-of-income discrimination took effect on January 1, 2019.

The ordinance, which the Denver City Council approved back in August, prohibits a wide range of conduct in real estate transactions “based upon … source of income.”  Protected sources of income under the ordinance include government housing assistance, Social Security payments, veterans’ benefits, student loans, legal settlements, and court-ordered child support and alimony payments.  The income source must be both “lawful” and “verifiable” to be eligible for protection.  The new law applies to landlords, real estate agents, property managers, and mortgage lenders.  Property owners who rent a single unit are specifically exempt.
Continue Reading Denver Bans Source-of-Income Discrimination in Real Estate Transactions Beginning January 1

We’ll start in Boulder and with commercial development. In February, the Boulder City Council directed city staff to draft an ordinance that would raise the city’s affordable housing linkage fee on new commercial development from $12 per square foot to $25, $30, or $35 per square foot.  Boulder’s current $12 linkage fee is the highest such fee of any city in the country between the two coasts, with Palo Alto the highest in the country at $35.  Even so, City Council members expressed that the current fee is still low enough vis-a-vis fees on residential development to incentivize commercial development over residential development. And more commercial development without new housing only exacerbates the city’s acute jobs-housing disequilibrium.  …
Continue Reading Boulder County Municipalities Look to Double Affordable Housing Linkage Fees

This post follows up on a post from August about a citizen initiative to limit residential growth in Lakewood, Colorado.

In Lakewood, Colorado’s fifth largest city, citizens associated with Lakewood Neighborhood Partnership submitted a petition for a “strategic growth” initiative last July. The initiative aims to limit the growth of residential housing units to 1% annually, and would require that the Lakewood City Council approve all projects with forty or more housing units. The unelected planning commission currently has final decision authority over multifamily site plans and subdivisions in Lakewood.
Continue Reading What happened to “strategic growth” in Lakewood?

California Investor Buys former StorageTek/ConocoPhillips Campus in Bid for Amazon

In a bid to have Amazon select Boulder County as its much-ballyhooed second headquarters, California’s Bancroft Capital recently went under contract to purchase the 432-acre property (depicted below) in Louisville that is the former home of StorageTek.  The property is currently owned by ConocoPhillips. Bancroft also developed the Peloton project in Boulder.
Continue Reading Updates from Boulder County: A Bid for Amazon, Google Buys Property, and Senior Housing

Late last month, we told you about an important bill introduced in the Colorado General Assembly.  The bill had passed in the Colorado House of Representatives, and was headed for the Senate.  It was drafted to address the sharp decrease in condominium construction in this state, caused by developers’ fear of construction defect claims brought…