Greetings, Members, Supporters, and Followers,
In my 2024 New Year’s letter, I said that Denver and Colorado were on the cusp of systemic housing policy reform. In 2025, I can say that this systemic reform has come to pass. For the first time in history, the Colorado State Legislature has declared housing to be a matter of statewide concern and has enacted several bills into state law:
- HB24-1313 will require local governments to allow at least an average of 40 dwelling units per acre near corridors designated as Transit Oriented Communities.
- HB24-1304 largely abolishes Minimum Parking Requirements for new housing projects near transit service.
- HB24-1152 legalizes Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in most Colorado municipalities.
- SB24-174 Sustainable Affordable Housing Assistance requires local governments to complete housing needs assessments focused on directing growth to developed urban areas instead of open space and natural lands.
- HB24-1007 prohibits arbitrary Occupancy Limits on the number of unrelated adults who may live in a dwelling unit as long as safety codes are met, effectively legalizing roommates.
- HB24-1107 Judicial Review of Local Land Use Decision will reduce the number of frivolous land use lawsuits by causing attorney’s fees to be awarded to the prevailing defendant.
- HB24-1098: Requires landlords to have a just Cause Required for Residential Evictions, increasing renter stability.
These bills will have a massive impact and put Colorado’s land use and housing conditions on a much better trajectory. However, these changes are not wholesale. For example, single-unit zoning remains largely intact. There is much work yet to be done. In the 2025 legislative session, we anticipate engaging on bills related to single stair reform, YIGBY (Yes-In-God’s Back Yard), lot splitting, and condo defects. For more information on the year ahead, we encourage you to attend our premier 2025 State Legislative Kickoff Event!
On the Denver municipal front, YIMBY Denver has also been busy. We have been successful in working with the Denver City Council, the Mayor’s office, and the Department of Community Planning and Development (CPD) to secure “Support” positions when state legislation was under consideration, and we have been advocating for the City to go above and beyond the minimum possible compliance with these laws. Just last month, CPD announced its Modernizing Parking Requirements Project, which would not only remove off-street parking requirements in transit zones but also abolish them citywide, lifting this burdensome and automobile-spawning rule from the city’s books entirely. This would be a massive victory, hard-fought for, but we still need the City Council to pass it. We encourage you to contact your city council people (1 district and 2 at large!) to ask them to support it.
In a first for YIMBY Denver, because of our increasing interest at the state capitol, and after an extensive questionnaire and interview assessment process by our volunteer Leads Council and membership ratification, we made 18 total endorsements in the state legislative primaries. Of these, 15 were elected to office, increasing pro-housing representation under the Golden Dome. We also ran three for three on our endorsements for the RTD Board of Directors and helped ensure the passage of the mission-critical RTD Revenue Retention ballot measure.
After much consideration, YIMBY Denver also supported Ballot Measure 2R: Affordable Denver. Spearheaded by Mayor Johnston and placed on the ballot by the City Council, this measure would have increased the sales tax by 0.5% to raise over $100 million per year for below-market affordable housing. Because YIMBY Denver supports all public and privately built infill housing and initiatives to increase housing stability, and because we received commitments from the administration to work with us on land use regulatory reform, we decided to endorse 2R. Unfortunately, Denver voters defeated it by a narrow margin, likely because of its lack of specificity and its sizable sales tax increase on a crowded ballot.
We are eager to partner with Mayor Johnston as his administration crafts a new approach to solving Denver’s affordable housing crisis going forward.
In 2024 we also held a great series of events, including:
- Member Exclusive: Conversation with Governor Jared Polis (April 30th)
- Density & Diversity: What's Next for City and State Housing Policy with Reps. Manny Rutinel and Javier Mabrey and Denver City Council Members Darrell Watson and Sarah Parady (August 28)
- Colorado Land Use Reform: Lessons from the Evergreen State (January 18th)
- No Parking Required: End Costly Parking Mandates with State Rep Vigil (February 8th)
- YIMBY 2024 Denver Legislative Kickoff Party (February 15th)
- Single-Stair Educational Panel with the Colorado Planners Network and Rep. Valdez (March 12)
- Legislative Victory Celebration (May 30th)
- Denver Rock Drill Site Tour (October 9th)
- YIMBY Denver Year-End Happy Hour (November 20th)
YIMBY Denver looks forward to holding more events in 2025, including some with an educational focus. We hope to see you at one, including our 2025 State Legislative Kickoff!
The stakes for the pro-housing movement have never been higher. Polarization is high and Americans’ trust in each other and in our institutions is low. Many citizens feel that their government has not been responsive to their needs and have voted accordingly. Inflation undoubtedly plays a role in this, and the largest inflated expense in most people’s budgets is their monthly housing payment. For the sake of our livelihoods, our climate, and our democracy, we must construct a policy landscape that allows our human habitats to sustainably accommodate everyone who wants to call them home.
I am thankful to have built a home in Denver and a community in our urbanist movement. I am proud of every volunteer who has helped us accomplish so much in 2024. YIMBY Denver welcomes in solidarity everyone in 2025 who wants to see Denver live up to its inclusive values and become the best possible example of what a city can be: welcoming, affordable, sustainable, and vibrant without displacing the people who made it what it is today.
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not.” - Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
Thank you for caring,
Ryan Keeney
President, YIMBY Denver