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.
But, hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!
So for my contribution to the ‘crisis game’ let me offer one that the Council can actually do something about: housing attainability.
Our housing costs are about 75 percent higher than the national average. Two things are driving those costs: Northern Colorado is popular and continues to grow (demand); and city government restricts housing inventory growth (supply).
It’s a CRISIS!
To provide leadership to solve it, the City Council can do a lot, starting with:
- Liberalize the over-restrictive 3-unrelated ordinance. When adopted 10+ years ago the city government completely disrupted and shrank the rental supply basically overnight. They can fix that crisis.
- Commit not to adopt any new ordinances, resolutions or fees without first analyzing the impact on housing supply and costs. City government talks about the high housing costs then takes action after action to contribute to them. They can fix that crisis.
- Commit to cut time in development review for housing projects in half. Baby elephants can be conceived, gestated, and born before some housing projects in Fort Collins get built. They can fix that crisis.
It’s more fun to talk about other esoteric ‘crises’ than housing attainability, but it’s one the Council can start addressing today, if they really want to.