Colorado’s 2026 legislative session opened this week with House Bill 25-1169, the latest attempt by state Democrats to override local land-use authority. After three years of failed bills and pushback from counties and municipalities, Governor Jared Polis and Democratic lawmakers believe they’ve found the formula: let schools, universities, and select nonprofits bypass local zoning on properties up to five acres.
The HOME Act would strip local governments of fundamental zoning powers over qualifying properties owned by public schools, state colleges or universities, local public housing authorities, and nonprofits with housing construction histories. Beginning December 31, 2026, these organizations could build residential developments regardless of whether land is zoned for housing—up to three stories or 45 feet tall, or as tall as local zoning allows.
House Speaker Pro Tempore Andrew Boesenecker, a Fort Collins Democrat, is leading the legislation alongside Representative Javier Mabrey of Denver. In the Senate, the bill is sponsored by Senator Julie Gonzales of Denver—currently running against U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper in Colorado’s 2026 Democratic primary—and Senator Tony Exum of Colorado Springs. Polis, entering his final year in office, backs the measure as part of his closing legacy.
Subject jurisdictions—local governments with populations exceeding 2,000—cannot disallow construction based on height if structures comply with the three-story limit or existing height standards in adjacent districts. They cannot block developments based on dwelling unit counts. They cannot apply standards more restrictive than those applied to “similar housing” elsewhere in the jurisdiction, including requirements for structure setbacks, lot coverage, open space, on-site parking, bedroom counts in multifamily buildings, or landscaping.
What remains as local control is largely procedural. Jurisdictions can enforce infrastructure standards for utilities and transportation, apply life safety codes and environmental health regulations, require water capacity statements, and impose impact fees. But the fundamental question of whether housing belongs on a particular piece of land—the core zoning decision that elected county commissioners and town councils have made since Colorado’s founding—gets stripped away for qualifying properties.
The bill includes affordability requirements sponsors tout as community protection. For rentals, if a jurisdiction lacks inclusionary zoning and market rents exceed 120 percent of area median income, at least 20 percent of units must be affordable at 80 percent AMI. For-sale developments must set aside 20 percent of units for households at 140 percent AMI. These requirements run 40 years on rentals and 30 years on sales.
Whether these thresholds deliver genuinely affordable housing in communities where median home prices exceed $550,000 and median rents hit $1,771 remains an open question. An income of $70,000 is required just to avoid being cost-burdened at median rent statewide. In resort communities, the gap between “affordable” at 80 or 140 percent AMI and actual workforce housing needs spans tens of thousands of dollars.
The HOME Act represents the fourth consecutive year of override attempts. In 2023, Democrats packed multiple reforms into one sweeping bill requiring density increases, single-family neighborhood up-zoning in large cities, and state-prescribed housing plans in mountain towns. The bill collapsed when Democrats couldn’t agree among themselves on override limits.
Since that failure, Democrats passed several measures despite local opposition: bills increasing housing density around public transportation, banning residential occupancy limits, and reducing parking requirements. In 2025, a YIMBY measure making it easier for churches and schools to build housing failed after complaints from local officials about state interference.
The 2026 version differs strategically. Religious institutions, included in the 2025 proposal, are absent. Local public housing authorities and nonprofits with housing construction track records have been added. These changes appear calculated to reduce opposition while maintaining the fundamental goal: state override of local zoning for favored organizations.
Boesenecker argues the administrative approval process—bypassing traditional rezoning and discretionary permitting—cuts development timelines by 28 percent. But what constitutes appropriate development locations under the bill is any qualifying property not specifically exempted: parcels without water and sewer access, properties with conservation easements, airport exclusion zones, or historic properties. Otherwise, if a school district, university, housing authority, or approved nonprofit owns at least five acres for five years, local zoning becomes advisory.
The fiscal context exposes the political calculation. Colorado’s 2026 session faces an $850 million budget shortfall limiting new programs and actual housing investment. The HOME Act offers Democrats a low-cost policy victory—the state mandates that local jurisdictions accept developments without appropriating funds for infrastructure costs, water capacity expansions, or emergency services those developments require. Counties and towns absorb the fiscal impact while the state claims credit for housing policy.
For Gonzales, the HOME Act provides a progressive credential for her primary challenge against Hickenlooper. For Polis, it represents a final attempt to cement a housing legacy before leaving office. For sponsors, it’s another step in the multi-year campaign to break local control.
A second housing bill is coming this session, building on 2024 legislation that eased accessory dwelling unit construction. The new proposal would make it easier for homeowners to subdivide and sell property portions in higher-density areas like Denver metro and Grand Junction.
Cities, counties, and municipalities argue the legislature is eroding their ability to design communities. After three years of density mandates, parking requirement eliminations, and occupancy limit bans passing despite objections, local governments now face the most direct assault on zoning authority—the power to decide what gets built where within their jurisdictions.
Colorado needs 100,000 homes according to sponsors, but stripping elected officials of zoning control to achieve that goal transfers development authority from communities that understand their infrastructure limits, water capacity, and character to organizations pursuing statewide housing mandates. The HOME Act may succeed where previous bills failed. The cost is local control over community development decisions that have belonged to counties and towns since statehood.
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