Westminster council hears detailed briefing on new state housing laws; water supply and local control top concerns

City staff on Monday gave Westminster City Council a detailed briefing on three recently enacted state laws that staff said will require updates to the city's comprehensive plan, municipal code and water-supply planning and could force zoning changes around transit.

The presentation by Andrew Spurgeon, long range planner in the community services department, summarized requirements of what he called three acts: “HB 24 13 o 4,” a parking preemption; “HB 24 13 13,” which establishes a housing opportunity goal, and “Senate bill 24 1 74,” which prescribes new methods and deadlines for housing needs assessments, comprehensive plans and water supply plans. “These acts ... are intended to address the state's housing needs, paired with environmental goals to increase transit use and reduce the footprint of vehicles in a built environment. That seems to be the intent,” Spurgeon said.

Spurgeon told council the first statutory deadline is a preliminary community assessment report due June 30. Staff said DOLA (the Colorado Department of Local Affairs) will issue technical guidance at the end of the month to clarify calculations but that the city's initial inventory suggests a large increase in capacity would be required. Using the formulas staff reviewed, Spurgeon said, the calculation would produce an initial housing opportunity goal figure of about 9,800 units; applying the statutory formula but then subtracting certain exclusions such as flood plains and cemeteries produced a different figure staff recorded as 50,506 units and an area roughly equal to 2,745 acres and about 5,750 properties.

Why it matters: staff said complying on the state timeline would require significant planning work, new zoning districts that allow much higher densities near transit, and funding for affordability and displacement-mitigation programs; many of those tasks would require additional staffing and consultant work through 2027 and 2028. Spurgeon warned the administrative-approval pathway the statute creates would change when and how council and the public review some multifamily projects. He told council the city would still retain discretion to deny or condition developments based on traffic and utility constraints.

Council members pressed staff on water supply and legal risk. A city water utility representative, identified in the meeting as Frankel, said the city faces a difficult position if zoning is decoupled from water availability: “I don't know that the legislature has necessarily considered that where a city operates its own water utility with finite resources ... I think you are in an impossibility kind of scenario there where a landowner says my land has been up zone dramatically, and I'd like to demand a lot of water. But if that water doesn't exist, I don't see how we could allow the project to move forward.”

Several council members raised questions about local priorities and outreach. Mayor McNally and multiple councilors expressed concern about state overreach. Councilor Azadi said plainly, “The issue is local control. Are you going to let the state tell you what you're gonna do for your city?” Councilor Allen said the city still faces strong demand for single-family homes: “We have a shortage of single family homes.”

Staff asked for direction on whether to proceed with the analyses and mapping needed to meet the June and year-end deadlines. Spurgeon said staff can incorporate the parking change (HB 24 13 o 4) into the city's unified development code update and that other statutory requirements will require cross-departmental work. Council did not adopt a formal position by vote in the study session; several members expressed reluctance to move aggressively on the rezoning and to prioritize the state's methodology over locally developed planning approaches.

The meeting record shows staff will continue to track DOLA guidance and webinars, to meet statutory deadlines if council directs them to do so, and to return with more detailed analyses and potential zoning strategies. Spurgeon and other staff also told council they met with DOLA and the governor's office earlier in January and that the state has not committed additional funding for cities to meet the new statutory requirements.

What’s next: staff said the city can also opt to participate in a regional housing needs assessment being led by regional partners; councilors suggested robust citizen outreach before any major rezoning or changes to local code.