In our April Client Alert, we reported on a possible breakthrough in construction defect reform legislation, which had passed the House and was moving to the Senate.  The Colorado Senate has now unanimously approved House Bill 1279, and sent it to Governor Hickenlooper, who is expected to sign the bill.  HB 1279 was one of six bills introduced this year in an effort to address the dearth of condominium construction in Denver.  It is the only bill to reach the Governor’s desk, and the first bill in four years of effort to make substantive changes to the existing construction defect law in Colorado.

In Denver on Wednesday, a federal court ruled for the first time that refusing to rent a dwelling to someone because the prospective renter does not conform to gender stereotype norms (e.g., because a person dresses or acts in a way, or is attracted to, married to, and/or has children with someone, that does not conform with stereotype norms associated with that person’s biological gender) constitutes sex discrimination under the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”). Continue Reading Denver Federal Court Rules Gender Stereotyping Violates Fair Housing Act

Many of the residents selected for the Beloved Community Village have had issues getting into Denver’s shelters—there are a few couples who want to live together, a transgender person, a person in a wheelchair, and Sandra Herman, who has pets. Credit: Westword
Many of the residents selected for the Beloved Community Village have had issues getting into Denver’s shelters—there are a few couples who want to live together, a transgender person, a person in a wheelchair, and Sandra Herman, who has pets. Credit: Westword

Earlier this week, Denver approved a temporary zoning permit for a tiny-house community for homeless people, the “Beloved Community Village.” The community will include eleven 8-foot by 12-foot shelters, as well as shared kitchen and bathroom facilities, constructed for about $130,000 on Urban Land Conservancy-owned property at 38th and Walnut Streets in the RiNo neighborhood. Continue Reading Local Governments Making Room for Tiny Homes

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This past Tuesday evening, Boulder City Council voted 8-1 to extend the city’s existing moratorium barring the city from considering property owner requests to exceed the city’s building height ordinance. One of my prior posts summarizes Boulder’s building height restriction regime and the existing moratorium. The existing moratorium was set to expire on April 19, 2017; Tuesday’s vote extended that date to July 19, 2018 while keeping the existing moratorium’s other terms. In short, this extension means that unless a development is located in an exempted area or is part of an exempted project, Boulder won’t see a building over 40 feet tall constructed any time soon.

 

 

Virtually all of Boulder County’s local governments have their own, individual plans to reverse the diminishing supply of affordable housing in their respective communities.  But these local governments are now weighing a new approach: collaborating and coordinating with one another in a way that, if successful, would supply more affordable housing to the county than the total that will be provided if each of them continues acting independently. Continue Reading Boulder County Cities and Towns Considering Coordinated Regional Approach to Affordable Housing