Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the State Legislation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Littleton council reviews state legislative proposals; staff to draft positions for future meetings
Summary
City Attorney briefed the Littleton City Council March 18 on a set of state bills that could affect municipal authority and operations; councilors asked staff to prepare draft positions and resolutions for future consideration.
City Attorney briefed the Littleton City Council on a range of state legislative proposals March 18 and council members directed staff to prepare draft resolutions on several items for a future meeting.
The attorney outlined about eight bills the city is monitoring that could affect local authority and municipal operations, including legislation described in the briefing as the Colorado Voting Rights Act, a bill allowing certain faith-based or educational institutions to build housing on their properties (referred to in the briefing as “YIGBY”), proposed municipal-court procedure changes, an automated-permit requirement for clean-energy installations, changes to wireless-telecommunications siting timing, electric-fence/alarm classifications and a construction-defect bill intended to reduce developer litigation risk.
The attorney framed many of the measures as potential incursions on local home-rule authority, particularly bills that single out municipalities for new mandates (for example, the Voting Rights Act proposal was described as applying only to municipal elections). He said the municipal-court reform bill could reduce local flexibility to set fines or remedies for ordinance-level violations and could shift caseloads to county courts; the wireless/siting and automated-permit bills could create unfunded mandates and technical requirements the city staff have not yet implemented.
Councilors expressed particular interest in opposing legislation that would curtail municipal authority over local courts and policing and indicated support for the construction-defect reform bill, which the Metro Mayors Caucus and Colorado Municipal League had described as potentially encouraging missing-middle for-sale housing by adjusting litigation thresholds and procedures. Several council members requested staff prepare individual resolutions opposing specified bills (city attorney recommended opposition in principle to measures that erode local home-rule) and a separate resolution in support of the construction-defect reform with amendments where appropriate.
No formal legislative positions were adopted March 18; council asked staff to draft resolutions and bring them back for consideration at an upcoming meeting.
