Vibrant Littleton is deeply committed to engagement in our local community around housing and mobility. Our work is exclusively local in focus, so we understand the importance of local leadership.
But we also recognize that there is an important role for state and national legislation, particularly in matters which affect a wider region. State and federal policies which set baselines in order to protect water and air quality, building structure, college accreditation, food and drug quality, utility rates, car safety, and myriad other things are positive interventions. Such laws prevent harms that strictly local law cannot properly address.
Vibrant Littleton welcomes SB-213 because it recognizes that housing is similarly an area where the impact of local control has led to negative consequences beyond local borders. SB-213 is an important step forward in making Colorado housing policy work in an equitable manner.
We view SB-213 as supporting Littleton’s “housing journey,” providing essential baselines that mitigate artificial local constraints to things like ADUs, missing middle housing, and municipalities which exclude workforce housing. We are extremely grateful that Littleton’s staff and council have displayed a concerted commitment to improving the city’s housing policy in recent years, but the relatively modest progress made during this time speaks volumes about the challenges faced even with engaged local leadership. The success of our housing policy will be largely dependent on the entire region adopting a similar approach, thus we believe that legislation like SB-213 is necessary to encourage shared responsibility among less committed nearby jurisdictions.
Vibrant Littleton views housing a matter of regional concern. We urge Littleton City Council to engage with and support SB-213 as a first step in crafting a regional housing policy framework. We do not view the legislation as a negation of local control, but simply a much-needed set of baselines and minimum standards that ensure a long overdue regional approach to housing policy. As a community which struggles achieving these baselines, we feel SB-213 would augment Littleton’s local efforts as well as require our neighboring communities to share responsibility for future housing creation.
— Vibrant Littleton