Ordinance 2022-1839 - DENIED - Laserfiche WebLink

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Denied on Second Reading WHEREAS, the City Council finds a diverse housing stock within the City is necessary to serve people of all income levels; and WHEREAS, based upon the review and consideration of recent housing studies, reports and analysis, the City Council finds the provisions set forth herein are necessary to preserve a diversity of housing opportunities for the City's residents and working people; and WHEREAS, according to the Boulder County Community Foundation TRENDS Report 2019-2021 (the "TRENDS Report"), between 2007 and 2017, employment in Boulder County grew by 39,719 positions, a seventeen percent (17%) increase; and WHEREAS, housing has not kept pace with employment, with only one new housing unit added for every 3.5 new jobs that came to Boulder County in that period; and WHEREAS, on December 30, 2021, the Marshall Fire ignited in Boulder County and quickly spread to the City of Louisville, resulting in severe damage or total loss of almost six hundred (600) structures within the City of Louisville, most of them residential homes; and WHEREAS, this extreme imbalance in supply and demand of housing, further exacerbated by the Marshall Fire, has forced tens of thousands of people and vehicles into Boulder County each day just to work and has contributed to a rise in homelessness and driven up housing prices; and WHEREAS the regional trend toward increased housing prices will, without intervention, further exacerbate the inadequate supplies of affordable housing for low-, moderate-, and middle -income households, which will in turn have a negative impact on the ability of local employers to maintain an adequate local work force; and WHEREAS, the general lack of affordable housing for households of low- and moderate -income, along with the large number of existing middle -income households that are "housing cost burdened" cause many adverse social and economic impacts within the City, particularly impacts associated with the fact that many persons employed within the City are increasingly unable to afford to live in the City near their place of employment; and WHEREAS, Colorado statutes, particularly C.R.S. § 29-20-104(1)(g), enable all municipalities to regulate the use of land on the basis of the impact thereof on the community; and WHEREAS, House Bill 21-1117, adopted by the Colorado General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor on May 28, 2021, clarified that the existing authority for cities to plan for and regulate the use of land includes the authority to regulate development or redevelopment in order to promote the construction of new affordable housing units; and WHEREAS, it is the express intention of the City Council for this ordinance to provide a property owner or land developer the option to rezone commercial property for residential uses, Ordinance No. 1839, Series 2022 Page 2 of 16