Gutted sprawl bill is rebuilt

By Trent Seibert
April 4, 2001

Growth legislation that went into the House stripped came out fully clothed Tuesday.

Representatives debated one of two main sprawl-control bills for most of the day, and one of the first orders of business was reattaching pieces dumped by a House committee two months ago.

"We did rebuild it," said Rep. Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, the sponsor of House Bill 1225.

Final passage of the bill is expected today.

The bill was "gutted," according to Stengel, in the House Local Government Committee on Feb. 19.

Committee members took out sections of the bill that would allow local governments to continue to impose moratoriums on housing growth and to take away what's called the "presumption of buildability."

That allows developers to build if they meet a city's requirements, even if neighbors protest.

But within minutes of reaching the full House of Representatives on Tuesday, the bill looked exactly the way it did when it was initially introduced to the legislature.

Environmentalists, who had pushed hard for the changes, were appalled at the result.

"This bill started as a developers' Bill of Rights and now it's a developers' Christmas wish list," said Elise Jones of the Colorado Environmental Coalition.

Developers were pleased with the changes.

"It looks like it's restored very close to the way it was introduced," said William Munch of the Colorado Home Builders Association.

There are some changes, though, such as one that would allow cities that have master plans to use that as a growth plan, instead of creating a new one.

Rich McClintok of the public interest group CoPIRG called it a loophole that would mean many communities wouldn't have to control growth at all. Stengel said he did not see that amendment as a problem.

And changes to the bill are not over.

The bill now goes to the Senate. Since that body is controlled by Democrats and the House controlled by Republicans, changes are inevitable.

"You don't think the Senate will work their magic?" Stengel asked, a statement more than a question.

And the House isn't done debating growth, either.

A competing growth bill, Senate Bill 148, passed the Senate on March 23 and will start making its way through House committees and, finally come before the full House. No dates have been set. And both bills likely will wind up in a conference committee from both houses, where one hybrid bill will emerge.