Gov. Jared Polis has signed the Housing Opportunities Made Easier Act, or HOME Act, which will allow school districts, universities, housing authorities, transit districts and qualifying nonprofits to build housing on properties up to five acres, regardless of local zoning rules.
The law takes effect in 2028. All of Boulder’s state legislators — Sen. Judy Amabile and Reps. Lesley Smith and Junie Joseph — supported the bill. The Boulder City Council sought to amend the bill rather than take a position for or against it.
The law prohibits local governments from applying more restrictive standards to these projects than they apply to similar housing elsewhere in their jurisdictions. Projects could reach up to 45 feet in height, exceeding Boulder’s 35-foot limit in many areas.
Some of the council’s requested changes made it into the final bill. The council asked that projects be tied to a demonstrated need identified in a city’s housing needs assessment. The law allows cities to apply certain rules related to approved housing needs assessments and housing action plans.
The council also asked that unincorporated counties be excluded to prevent sprawl. The law still applies to certain unincorporated county lands with at least 5,000 residents located within three miles of a municipality. The final bill did not address council members’ concerns about limiting building heights based on existing zoning districts.
The law would not prevent Boulder from enforcing its inclusionary housing policies, which require developers to either make 25% of units deed-restricted as affordable, donate vacant land to the city or pay into the city’s Affordable Housing Fund.
I wish the act allowed local governments to incorporate water availability projections into their housing plans. It doesn’t make much sense to build out a bunch of housing and not have enough water for the community.
City Council Members: Quick start more housing by helping current homeowners who are interested in building ADU’s and finishing basement apartments with financing and help lifting restrictions. Select and vet contractors to compete for business and control costs,
while at the same time assuring quality and equitable pricing. Solicit manufacturers to bid for standardized materials such as sinks, toilets kitchen appliances, flooring, and any other materials that could be standardized for all properties in order to control costs. ( realizing some homeowners can opt out to make their own choices.)
Call it the Grand Sundance Experiment. Let’s make it a success!
The traffic congestion and parking is already a nightmare. Roads and highways already don’t have enough lanes. International building companies should be excluded, because they don’t care about quality of life as much a US citizen who lives here does.
Why do we need more housing. We can’t afford to buy the houses that are there now or rent them because of the prices. What about water Where’s that all going to come from to plumb all these homes, apartments& houses. We are already on restriction for this year Don’t understand why poliss would do this makes no sense
Marie Randolph, I agree with you!
Oh the hypocrisy…ironic that Polis fights back against DC and wants “local control” but bulldozes right over city-level “local control”. Never mind water availability, this isn’t for ADU’s or tiny homes folks…It’s “build whatever wherever you want / can get away with” while flipping the bird at local government and the neighbors. The idea that simply “Building more houses makes housing more affordable for everyone” is in itself a logical fallacy. And this isn’t post WWII – in 2026 developers aren’t interested in building starter homes because the margins for true starter homes are too small.
In basically every market where you actually allow more housing to get built, prices either stabilize or go down. When you don’t, and try to force affordability purely through rent control, you tend to get the opposite: less building, tighter supply, and worse outcomes over time.
The Twin Cities are a pretty clean A/B test. Saint Paul went hard on rent control and saw new housing permits fall off a cliff (~79% drop). Minneapolis, meanwhile, allowed more building and saw supply go up and rents stay way more in check.
https://www.credaily.com/briefs/rent-control-lessons-from-twin-cities-housing-policies/
This isn’t some fringe take either—it’s pretty consensus among economists that if you cap prices without increasing supply, you choke off new construction.
Polis is making the right to address CO affordability. Good for him!