This morning I received a ‘Client Alert’ from the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck with an update about the number of citizen-initiated ballot measures being proposed in Colorado.
According to the firm, so far 257 ballot measures have been submitted for consideration for the 2019-20 election cycle, up from 185 in the previous cycle.
Highlighted in the alert is Proposed Initiative 2019-2020 #122, a measure to cap housing permits at 1% growth per year in 11 counties on the Front ...
One of the vexing issues in Northern Colorado is housing attainability. Local government regulations, land use codes, and high fees limit the supply of housing to meet the demand of a growing area. As economist Dr. Thomas Sowell says in a 2015 article, “When a growing population creates a growing demand for housing, and the government blocks housing from being built, the price of existing housing goes up.” He shares a story of someone telling President Ronald Reagan about an issue that was �...
A month ago, I wrote a post titled “It’s a Crisis!” in which I poked fun at the special pleaders routinely parading up to the microphone at City Council meetings asking for official government sanction to address various so-called crises.
I declared if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, then offered my own market-based perspective on how to deal with the housing affordability ‘crisis’ in our fair city, which included:
Liberalize the over-restrictive 3-unrelated ordinance. Whe...
Hardly a week goes by without a group or individual appearing before the Fort Collins City Council to declare some crisis that needs formal city action and sanction.
Some are worth considering, while others are radical, disruptive, and expensive special interest pleadings. I’d like to say the latter are dismissed out-of-hand, but, unfortunately, sometimes common sense is not in residence at City Hall.
