The Rocky Mountain News
www.insidedenver.com

Most favor legislature requiring counties, cities to have detailed plans — but not as law

By Todd Hartman
January 8, 2001

Coloradans like the idea of requiring cities and counties to lay out plans showing where growth should occur, but aren't in favor of making "growth boundaries" legally binding.

That's the result of a Colorado news poll conducted last month by Talmey-Drake Research and Strategy for the Denver Rocky Mountain News and News4.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

Fifty-two percent of the 605 adults polled said the legislature should require cities and counties to adopt comprehensive plans that would include urban growth boundaries showing where growth could take place over the next 10 to 20 years.

But 53 percent of those polled said such plans should only be advisory, instead of creating legal prohibitions to development outside the boundaries. Only 35 percent said the boundaries should be enforceable.

"Everybody sees the problem — it's that nobody sees the solution," said pollster Paul Talmey, adding that the public cries to do something about growth but is leery about creating hard-and-fast boundaries to contain sprawling development.

More surprising, Talmey said, is that only 52 percent of those polled wanted state law to require communities to create growth plans.

"I would have expected that to be higher," he said. "Having the state legislature say you've got to do some planning — that's not exactly the most radical idea in the world."

As for public discomfort over drawing lines to contain growth, those are understandable, said Steve Wilson, director of government affairs for the Homebuilders Association of Metro Denver.

After the public debate over Amendment 24, the growth-control initiative rejected by voters in November, "people are aware (growth boundaries) have the undisputed effect of driving up housing prices ... even further," he said.

Wilson said cities and counties already control growth to such an extent that "they are already limiting the supply of land."

Growth boundaries will likely be a flash point during the 2001 legislative session that opens Wednesday.

Environmentalists want legislators to require that cities and counties draw such boundaries and enforce them. Other interest groups, including cities and counties, have said they're interested in designating growth areas but aren't as enthusiastic about drawing absolute, legally enforceable lines on maps.

"The concepts we've been talking about ... are more flexible," said Chris Castilian, legislative director for Colorado Counties Inc. "They could accommodate different developments based on (local government's) ability to provide services to support that development."