Colorado Voting on Limiting Housing Growth Constitutional Amendment Initiative (2018)
| Colorado Voting on Limiting Housing Growth Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 6, 2018 | |
| Topic Housing | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin Citizens |
The Colorado Voting on Limiting Housing Growth Initiative did not qualfy to be on the ballot in Colorado as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 6, 2018.
The measure would have established a constitutional right to limit housing growth through countywide initiatives and referendums. The initiative would also have limited annual private housing growth to 1 percent in the counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, and Weld for 2019 and 2020. Limits in these counties would have continued in 2021 and thereafter under the initiative unless local voters overturned them via ballot measure.[1]
On December 15, 2016, Daniel Hayes, a sponsor of the initiative, reported that his campaign would seek to place the initiative on the ballot in 2018, rather than 2017, and as an initiated state statute, rather than an initiated constitutional amendment. On November 15, 2017, Hayes and the other sponsor, Julianne Page, filed a statute version of this initiative. Hayes cited Amendment 71, an initiative approved in 2016 to create a distribution requirement for signatures and increase the vote requirement to 55 percent for amendments, as an impediment to a successful initiated amendment campaign in 2017.[2]
Text of measure
Constitutional changes
- See also: Article XVIII, Colorado Constitution
The initiative was designed to add a Section 17 to Article XVIII of the Colorado Constitution:[1] Note: Hover over the text and scroll to see the full text.
(1) The electors of every city, town, city and county, or local county, whether statutory or home rule, reserve the right to limit housing growth by initiative and referendum without legislative inhibition or penalty. This right is further reserved on a countywide basis whereby electors throughout a county may elect to limit housing growth uniformly in all local governments and any part of such, whether statutory or home rule, within such county by initiative and referendum.
(2) Privately owned residential housing growth in the city and counties of Broomfield and Denver, and countywide in the counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, and Weld, including all local governments within such counties, shall not exceed one percent annually for the years 2019 and 2020. In said counties each local government and any part of such, whether statutory or home rule, and each said city and county shall allot building permits so that housing growth does not exceed a one percent annual growth rate in the total number of housing units in each said year. Beginning 2021 such growth limitations may be amended or repealed by initiative and referendum or otherwise shall remain in effect.
(3) No permits to build new privately owned residential housing units shall be issued within said counties including all local governments contained within or any part of such and said city and counties beginning with the declaration of voter approval of this section until January 1, 2019.
(4) Initiative and referendum for this section:
- (a) Signature requirements for initiative and referendum for enacting, repealing, or amending, proposals to regulate the growth of privately owned residential housing for local governments, whether statutory or home rule, shall be five percent of the total number of voters participating in the most recent general election in such local government. Such proposals on a countywide basis shall include the summation of such requirement from each local government and any part of a local government not governed within such county accumulated for the total signature requirement as determined by the county clerk.
- (b) Petitions for countywide proposals shall be issued by the county clerk for all local governments or any part of such within such county with stated minimum signature requirements for each such entity.
- (c) Only one challenge for the form and content of a petition shall be allowed and must be filed within ten business days following approval by the clerk of a local government or by the county clerk in the case of countywide petitions and before signature gathering commences. An expedited judicial decision for such a challenge shall be final.
- (d) Only one challenge for signature sufficiency shall be allowed and must be filed within ten business of the clerk’s certification of signature sufficiency and after allowing for additional needed signatures. Recertification shall not exceed two weeks and shall be final.
(6) If any provision of this section is held invalid, the remainder of this section shall remain unimpaired.
(7) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
- (a) “Annual growth” means that which occurs in a particular calendar year measured in the total number of housing units above that for the previous year.
- (b) “Housing unit” means a building or any portion of a building designed for occupancy as complete, independent living quarters for one or more persons, having direct access from the outside of the building or through a common hall and having living, sleeping, kitchen, and sanitary facilities for the exclusive use of the occupants. A detached home has one housing unit whereas an apartment building with eighty apartments has eighty housing units.
- (c) “Local county” means the county, whether statutory or home rule, as a separate local government within such county as in the unincorporated county.
- (d) “Local government” means a city, town, city and county, or local county, whether statutory or home rule.
- (e) “Privately owned residential housing” means a summation of housing units which are residentially zoned or otherwise intended for private residential use. Those owned by a federal, state or local government entity, or an educational, medical, or penal facility are excluded as are commercially zoned accommodations such as hotels and motels.[3]
Support
Daniel Hayes and Julianne Page of Jefferson County, Colorado, submitted the initiative for review and comment.[1]
Arguments
- Daniel Hayes, a sponsor of the initiative, argued, "The growth is completely out of control. Excessive growth will bankrupt the state. There’s already no money for highways."[4]
Path to the ballot
2017
Daniel Hayes and Julianne Page submitted the initiative to the Colorado Legislative Counsel for review and comment on October 24, 2016. On November 3, the counsel offered comments.[1] Compliance with these recommendations was not required. Proponents submitted a draft to the Colorado secretary of state on November 23, 2016.
The number of signatures required for a successful petition is equal to 5 percent of the total number of votes cast for the office of secretary of state in the preceding general election. The same number of signatures is required for constitutional amendments, statutes, and referendums. In 2017, the number of signatures required for an initiated constitutional amendment was 98,492. Due to the passage of Amendment 71 in November 2016, signatures equivalent to at least 2 percent of the registered electors who reside in the state's 35 senate districts needed to be part of the total. In Colorado, petitioners have six months to collect signatures after the ballot language and title are finalized. The Constitution, however, says that the petition must be filed three months before the election at which the measure would appear. In 2017, three months before the November election was August 7.
Daniel Hayes, an initiative sponsor, estimated that the campaign would need $800,000 to conduct a successful petition drive.[5]
On December 15, 2016, Daniel Hayes reported that his campaign would seek to place the initiative on the ballot in 2018, rather than 2017, and as an initiated state statute, rather than an initiated constitutional amendment. On November 15, 2017, Hayes and Page filed a statute version of this initiative. He cited Amendment 71, which increased the vote requirement to 55 percent for amendments, as an impediment to a successful initiated amendment campaign in 2017.[2]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Colorado Secretary of State, "Limit on Local Housing Growth," accessed December 12, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Colorado Statesman, "Amendment 71 claims first known victim; bar raised too high for growth limits measure," December 15, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source.
- ↑ Denver Business Journal, "Proposed constitutional amendment would limit Denver-area housing growth," December 1, 2016
- ↑ Denverite, "What if we just … made it stop? Constitutional amendment would impose residential growth limit along Colorado’s Front Range," December 2, 2016
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