Local-control advocates have wanted to repeal the prohibition on what's known as "inclusionary zoning" ever since a 2000 Colorado Supreme Court decision regarding a Telluride rent-control issue wound up affecting the entire state.
The lead-up to that decision began in 1981, when Boulder residents pushed an initiative seeking to institute rent control on existing buildings. In response, the Colorado Legislature passed a bill that "local governments cannot institute any ordinance that controls rent," explains Megan Dollar, legislative advocacy manager at the Colorado Municipal League, a major proponent of HB-1117. As a result, she says, from 1981 to 2000, "local governments acted in the same way they would have without the rent-control statute, in that when talking about new developments, they'd ask for set-asides in the development of affordable-housing units."