Arvada staff recommend joining DRCOG regional housing needs assessment to meet SB 24-174 requirements

Arvada city staff recommended that the City Council participate in the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) to satisfy administrative requirements created by Senate Bill 24-174.

Sam Bradley, the city’s affordable housing development specialist, told the council the immediate requirement is a housing needs assessment (HNA) due to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) in 2026 and a city-specific housing action plan (HAP) due in 2028. "The purpose of today's session is we're going to provide council with some information on Senate Bill 24-174 and the new requirements that it brings to our municipality," Bradley said.

The nut of staff’s recommendation is practical: Arvada completed its own HNA and a 27-page strategic housing plan before the state issued guidance, and those local documents do not match every administrative item the state now requires. DRCOG has produced a regional RHNA that DOLA has already reviewed; staff proposed that Arvada "participate" by submitting council comments to DRCOG and using the approved RHNA as a free supplement to Arvada’s existing work rather than commissioning a paid consultant to rework local datasets.

Participation, staff emphasized, would not mean adopting…